


All That Glitters Is Gold

by apotofgold



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Age Difference, Angst for like 5 minutes, Ben Solo is an asshole sometimes, Ben is as smooth as Ben usually is around Rey, Ben is pretty smooth, Enemies to Lovers, Especially when he's around Rey, Eventual Fluff, Eventual Happy Ending, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff, History, I Will Go Down With This Ship, Idiots in Love, Lots of Different Countries, Luke still kinda sucks, Modern AU, Mysteries and clues, Rey is unimpressed a lot of the time, Romance, Slow Burn, Snoke Being a Dick, So basically a trainwreck, Super tropey at moments, They're totally in love just super stupid, Why did I start another one, globetrotting, lots of swearing, some violence, unlikely partners
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-29
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:47:43
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 53,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23371177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apotofgold/pseuds/apotofgold
Summary: Rey Niima and Kylo Ren are treasure hunting rivals on a quest to find the famous saber that once belonged to Darth Vader. They both hate each other, or at least are trying to hate each other. Unfortunately, faux hatred is a difficult game to play where love is concerned.But love and war are more intertwined than they initially thought. After all, two heads are better than one. And maybe they'll end up finding something more than just a long lost treasure along the way.
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 38
Kudos: 40





	1. First Day Back

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everybody! I started another one which was probably a mistake considering I haven't even finished the first one in my two part series but whatever.
> 
> This fic is a slow burn and will have some explicit content at points. If there are any questions make sure to comment. Let me know what you think.

Today was Rey’s first day back to work after two months of leave. She was excited to see what project they had for her now. Leia had called her at 1AM telling her leave was over and she had better haul her ass into the office if she wanted to keep her job. Of course, she knew Rey would immediately accept. She loved this job more than life herself.

Two months ago, Rey had come back from Bali, Indonesia scratched up beyond belief, and hauling a massive idol. It had been a find a year in the making and she had spent lots of time living in a city called Yogyakarta.

There, she had scouted out the area and immersed herself in the local culture. The people were kind and welcoming and seemed to love her British accent.

She should have known that the trouble was soon to come. She was an experienced treasure hunter which meant she was usually a target for people who wanted the treasure after she had found it (lazy assholes who called themselves bounty hunters in her humble opinion, the journey was half the fun).

This time it had turned out to be a bunch of really tall guys in creepy black masks who had kidnapped her, and the trip had ended in her breaking a few ribs and fracturing her arm.

She wasn’t sure how she even managed to get away, but she had thrown herself out of a cargo plane as it was taking off, and then limped all the way back to the hangar, hidden there for a few hours and broken into an office to get a sat phone.

Leia had managed to get someone to take her back to Bali, and then she had come home to London. Where she was currently residing in a too small apartment that she didn’t like at all. She had missed work. As far as she was convinced she had the best job in the world.

Treasure hunting just took the edge off of everything. As soon as Rey had gotten out of university and away from her terrible foster parent she had been scouted by Leia Organa. Who was married to Han Solo, one of the greatest treasure hunters of his generation. And had also been her Archeology Professor.

Apparently, he had gone home almost every night to tell her about his star pupil: Rey, who was acing her linguistics class and was in the top percentile in both biological and cultural anthropology class. However, never once had Rey gotten that impression from him as he was a usually surly and quiet man, who seemed to show his affection through soft grumbles and pretty solid advice.

A year after she had joined the company, she had been invited to dinner by Leia to celebrate her first successful find; the remains of a mysterious Egyptian Pharaoh lost to history. There, she had asked Han about what he said about her when he got home and the red blush on his face and ensuing grumbles had sent everyone present into the throes of laughter.

Leia and Han were somewhat like her family, and when she was back from a trip she usually spent almost every night at their place for dinner. However, this time Leia had put her under house arrest getting one of the historians who occasionally helped her with research aid, Poe Dameron to drop groceries off every week.

So she was pretty damn excited to get back into it again.

She was standing in front of Resistance Treasures, one of the holders of one of the biggest historical archives in Britain. Who also owned a large share in a few famous museums. Or at least the ones that weren’t completely owned by the other big treasure hunting firm.

Ugh, she preferred not to think about them. There was definitely something sketchy going on over there, and she didn’t have much respect for people who didn’t do their hunting legally. Yet, nobody ever spoke out on them.

They owned every single history channel on every network, and had THE BIGGEST collection of historical archives in the world. Second to none. As well, every single famous museum was either owned by them or they held the other part of the share that Resistance Treasures did not own.

And there was some major bad blood between the two of them that dated back about three generations. That was what irked Leia more than anything. That, and the fact that even though Han was retired he still didn’t want to help out with the business, because Leia was the one with the “politician’s tongue” (his words, not Rey’s). Meaning that usually she could usually handle the business sharks who were constantly swimming.

Rey traipsed into the building, and up the winding stairs, skipping a few levels that she knew were just archives. When she finally reached the 10th level she was met with a small lobby, a secretary’s desk in front of her.

As she approached it she heard the kind voice of one of her very few friends, if they were even friends rather than really kind colleagues. She didn't get to spend much time with them as she was usually the one going the hunting, but if she was in town occasionally they would invite her to a bar and she would have a few drinks with them.

The job meant there wasn’t much time for friends, or anything other than research, planning, and finally execution.

The dark-haired girl at the desk was currently facing the opposite direction, and Rey leaned her arms on the desk, waiting.

“Yes, Leia. I promise you there’s only one coffee machine that isn’t broken. There is no conspiracy going on!” Rose called into the office behind her.

She turned back around and jumped when she saw Rey in front of her.

“Oh god, you snuck up on me” she said, hand on her heart as if to still it. Rey gave her a questioning glance about her prior conversation.

“You know how Leia gets about her coffee.” She deadpanned.

Rey could only nod thoroughly in agreement. Leia needed her coffee to get by, which meant this conversation was going to be a lot worse than she thought. Leia was a kind woman, but very intimidating, and grumpy on top of that was never a good combination.

Rose picked up the phone on her desk and phoned into the office, as the door was now closed.

“Leia? Hi-“she winced, evidently cut off by another grumbling remark before carrying on. “Rey’s here. Yes, I’m sending her in right now.”

She put the phone back down before addressing Rey again, “She’s just in there.”

She thanked her and walked behind the desk to the wooden door with the words Leia Organa engraved into a nameplate on it. Pushing it open she was greeted by the familiar smell of lavender and roses.

“Sit down.” A voice called from the glass desk cluttered with papers, with large windows behind it. Leia was sitting in a swivel chair facing the windows and looking outside. There was something wrong, Rey could feel it from the tension in the room.

She sunk down into one of the plush armchairs in front of the desk. Now she had to prepare herself for whatever would come next.

Then Leia turned around, and Rey had to stifle a laugh from how ridiculously godfather-y it looked. But based on the dark look on the older woman’s face she decided against it. But she could feel her lips trying so hard to twitch.

When she finally spoke her first words made all the humour in the situation promptly exit the room. “We’re done for”

Shit. Leia almost never made jokes.

“What do you mean we’re done?”

“I mean like we’re so far in the ground on this one that even I can’t get us out of it.”

Once again, Rey pressed on, “What do you mean?”

Leia sighed, and ran her hand over her face. Weariness taking over her features.

“I tried so hard. I tried so hard to keep this place afloat, and now we only have nine months left. When that viper, Snoke, first gave me a proposal to sell to him I threw it back in his face.”

Rey gasped. Snoke had tried to buy out Leia?

“And then we hired you, and your finds were doing so well. But lately it seems like our accounts are draining, and he’s gotten almost all of our shares cut out. Making himself the sole owner of majority of partnering museums. Even the one’s we shared partnership on are now his.”

Rey felt terrible. Leia just sounded so hopeless.

“I just don’t know how this happened. I double and triple checked everything once, and then twice. I even paid more to people so that they would keep working with us. But you know how much he owns. We barely stand a chance. We need more publicity. To show people that we can do better.”

“So that’s why I’m trusting you on this. I’ve kept a backup project in my pocket for a while now, and I never really had anybody to do it until we hired you. It’s very dangerous, and a wild card. But I need you to do this for me. I refuse to make our people work under him, we all know half the operations he pulls aren’t legal, or are completely dependent on bribery.”

This was terrible. It was exactly the type of operation she liked, but even Leia knew that some things were long shots. Did she have that much faith in this treasure that she thought it would save them?

“If you bring this in we can share with the public that it was us that found it. We’ll have cracked one of the biggest mysteries and treasure hunts in the world. We would be able to buy out Snoke with the sheer amount of credit and offers we’ll get from this. That’s why everything is riding on it.”

Rey couldn’t handle her curiosity anymore.

“Leia just spill it out, what is it.”

The older lady took a deep breath, before bracing herself against the table.

“I want you to look for Darth Vader’s Saber.”

What the fuck. Leia was sending her on a find for something that didn’t bloody exist. And she was going to base the fate of the entire company and her legacy on this one thing. Yes, it would solve all her problems. Vader’s Saber was the biggest lost treasure and mystery of the world; most people didn’t even know if it was real. And the ones that did think it was real had no idea how to find it. There was no starting place and no ending place. The man himself had vanished.

“What the fuck” Rey couldn’t help yelling out.

Leia’s glared at her sternly, but she wasn’t going to fall for this mothering bullshit. Not when the lady was acting crazy.

“That doesn’t exist Leia and we both know it.”

Leia slammed her hands on the desk, shocking Rey. Before standing up, she was almost shaking, but she knew how to contain her words. She could feel the cold fury turning the room to ice.

“We don’t know that. And it’s all we have Rey. If you don’t want to do it I understand, but you won’t have a job here and neither will anybody else.” She said, her voice wavering at the end, and Rey could see a single tear run down her face.

She had made Leia cry. God no, this was something she never wanted to see again. She would just have to reign it in and try her best. This treasure had to exist. It was everybody’s future riding on it, and she wouldn’t work with Snoke. Over her dead fucking body.

She felt resigned. There was nothing she could do about it. She owed Leia and Han at least a try for all they had done for her. They were like her family, and she wouldn’t let them down.

“I’ll do it. I’ll find the saber. You’re not going down with a fight. Not if I have anything to do with it.”

The look on Leia’s face made up for the entire thing. Almost.

Nine months. She could pull this off, right?


	2. New Orders

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone!
> 
> I just wanted to let you know that I will be trying my best to alternate between updating this book and Darkness Rises every other day. Hope you all enjoyed Ben's POV. I have a really deep plot planned out and a lot of planning and prep has gone into it, so I hope you enjoy it. I'm trying to make this as interesting as possible while also still finding great situations to toss our fav couple into.
> 
> Thanks to all of you :D Let me know how i'm doing!

It was Kylo Ren’s first night back home after a find. He was beaten up with a few fractures and multiple stitches, but other than that he was doing particularly well. He had just decided to lay down and try to fall asleep, resigning himself to the fact that he probably wouldn’t be able to as per usual, when his phone began to vibrate.

He had received called by his boss at 3AM. And he was not at all surprised considering that Snoke never let him have over twelve hours of break every once in a while, and it had been seventeen hours since he got back, so he was currently overtime on his break.

The man had told him as such when he called him in, telling him that there was a new project they had to discuss at that very moment. Of course, he knew that he had to accept, not that he would ever consider not accepting. He had learned early on in his years at the company that his boss didn’t take kindly to the word no.

Just the night before, he had gotten off his flight from Sydney, Australia where he had been searching for an escaped convict’s gold for the past six months. When he had arrived, he had settled in Sydney for a few days, collecting research and asking around for some information before grabbing a guide and moving to the Outback.

His research had pointed to the convict escaping around 1868, when the man had slipped off the boat, the Hougoumont, and made a break for the desert. This had led to Kylo spending a couple months in a tiny tent surrounded by red sand with nobody but his guide (who seemed pretty out of it most of the time) and a few deadly scorpions and snakes for company.

The days were hot and the nights were hotter to the point where his constant foul mood was exacerbated to the point of his guide trying to run away to escape him. Multiple times.

He had spent his time searching near Uluru, looking behind every rock and scouring the sand for any sort of clues or markings to show that the man had camped out there before ultimately perishing.

And when he finally was able to find the gold, it turned out that the vast fortune that was rumoured was really just a singular gold nugget (which Kylo had promptly flung into the desert in a heated rage, not that he would admit to doing so).

The singular gold nugget had taken an equally long amount of time to find again as it had in the first place, and by then he found that the guide had managed to sneak away with most of the supplies shared between them.

Then, he had been greeted by bandits who seemed to have followed him all the way to the desert in order to jump him and collect the fortune. They seemed to have severely overestimated how much the treasure was worth as well. Either way, he had gotten a rock to the back of the head, and the last thing he had seen was a tarantula dangerously close to his face before he blacked out.

When he awoke, he had found his hands and legs bound together by some of the weakest rope tying he had ever encountered (he had plenty of experience due to prior encounters with similar thugs). He was in the back of an open truck watching the sand get kicked up by the massive truck wheels, a fabric cover over his head shielding him from the sun.

It had only taken a little bit of movement from him for the knots to weaken enough for him to pull the arm bindings off, and the leg bindings had followed. His captors hadn’t seemed to expect that he would awaken anytime soon, even though he could tell it had probably been days as they passed by a landmark he remembered from the early day’s months ago.

The prattle of the wheels against the coarse ground and the squeak of metal bouncing had hidden the noise of his escape. The back of the truck had been completely open, which meant that he had clear access to the drivers and passengers seat.

He could clearly remember slinking towards the front, grabbing the rope previously used to tie him and throwing it around the driver’s neck. In that moment, his fury had been at its full height, the miserable time in the desert coupled with anger towards such novices for thinking they could best him causing him to throttle the driver until the man had turned purple and passed out. He then rolled out of the driver’s seat and was left behind in the dust, as the truck continued to move.

The man in the passenger’s seat who had previously been in shock after watching his attack of the driver had rolled out of the seat of his own volition in fear, tumbling to the road.

Kylo then climbed over the seat into the drivers, effectively pressing on the breaks to stop the truck, before reversing. He continued to do so until he caught up with the still conscious man who had pitched himself out and had gotten out of the truck to incapacitate him, at least for a few hours.

The man, scared for his life had retrieved a knife out of his pocket, slashing widely. Managing to create a slash that ran the length of Kylo’s arm. After that, Kylo decided to be more careful, blocking the swipes that were being made at him with no true purpose, showing him that the man clearly had never had to wield a knife against somebody else before.

An opening was created with the last wide slash the man had made at his face, and he took the opportunity to grab an arm, twisting it behind the man’s back before placing him in a chokehold. This gave him the opportunity to grab the knife out of the wielders hands and turn it so that he was holding the blunt side of the blade facing into his palm. He drew the knife back and used full force to strike the man with the hilt.

The man had collapsed and with that he tossed the knife and returned back to the truck. Continuing to drive until morning, which was when he noticed that the knife had in fact nicked quite him a few times and he had a couple fractures here and there.

After that everything had been a blur and he vaguely remembered getting on the plane and driving himself to the hospital in the early hours of the morning to get patched up. After that he had promptly returned home and freshened up before cooking, and finally laying down to sleep. Or at least that was until the phone call.

Currently he was standing in front of First Order Enterprises, the largest global conglomerate invested in history and preservation of artifacts. However, the way they did business was more forceful than anything, which he could at least admit, not that he was complaining. It was the only way to deal with some of the other sharks constantly swimming in the water. Especially when it came to the pesky organization that liked to refer to itself as Resistance Treasures.

How he hated that place and everything it stood for. He was determined to bring it down, no matter what. In fact, the way they did business wasn’t any better than them in the end, which often led him to believe that maybe neither organization was in the right at any given moment. But such thoughts were to be banished, or if not banished, to remain unspoken.

He stepped into the building, the red and black exterior feeling familiar to him, like a second home. The tension of the past few months went out of his body, leaving him to inhale the cold scent of mint.

As he wove through the office spaces allotted to the numerous researchers working there, he wondered about what they really did. He knew he was in charge of artifact retrieval, bounty or treasure hunting as many liked to refer to it as. This was the more dangerous field work, while they scouted out his locations beforehand. Or even assorted the multiple archives located in a separate building or in a different lot completely. Maybe they even dealt with the media section or the auctions.

But what was their purpose really? He stopped by the desk of one of his closest colleagues, Jacen, but was met with an empty, eerily tidy workspace. It didn’t make much sense, but he guessed it could be chalked up to a work break.

He had half a mind to ask around when the clocks at the office rang out that it was now 4AM, their hourly reminder of how long they were stuck there.

Hopefully Snoke wouldn’t assign him to goddamn desk duty and incident report writing about what exactly had happened during his recent trip. It was the worst part of the job by far, marking down everything that had happened so somebody could go back and deal with whatever fuck-ups he had made.

He took the elevator to the top level, getting out and strolling to the massive black lacquer double doors. He pushed them open, immediately being greeted by Snoke’s face.

“Kylo. I see you’re back.” The man’s face curled into an unnatural grin. It immediately made him feel uncomfortable, as was the case every time he entered this damn office. He fought to keep from shuddering and stood in the middle of the room, waiting.

“I’ve got a new assignment for you.”

Kylo stayed silent. He was never to speak unless directly told to during these rendezvous. It was just the order of things, and he didn’t dare question it.

“It has recently come to my attention that Resistance Treasures is planning to go on a quest for Darth Vader’s Saber.”

He felt the tiny flame of anger flare up within him at the mention of their biggest rival, no matter how small they were, they were hard to crush. On top of that the mention of Vader’s Saber pissed him off even more. That was his grandfather’s saber. Lost to history. And they were going to try and find it? Impossible.

That saber. It was rightfully his to find.

“I’m sure you are aware of the deal I have proposed to that puny company five years in a row. They have refused to take it again, seem to think finding the saber will be their last stand.”

Fuck. If they got to the saber first they would crush them. All the attention would be on them from then on out. Resistance Treasures will have won. Not on his fucking watch.

Kylo finally spoke, trying to keep his voice neutral, cold, and calculating “What would you have me do sir?”

“I want you to find it first. Once we do we will end them once and for all. I won’t have them jeopardize our future expansions.” Kylo could see the wicked gleam in his boss’s eye. He revelled in it. This would certainly be the revenge he had signed up for.

“Now” Snoke continued, pausing before continuing with a tone that told his following words would be less than savoury. “They’re sending that girl… to retrieve it.”

Shit. Fuck. No. No. Anybody but her damn it. Why did it have to be her? That blasted girl who had bested him three years ago. He could feel his mask slipping, and he fought to maintain it, trying to stop the swirl of emotions she caused.

She would turn this entire thing into a fucking mess. He hated her. Hated the way she spoke to him. Hated the way she made his heart race. Hated how uncomfortable she made him feel. He wasn’t in the mood for this now. Not after the shitshow in Australia, and he certainly wasn’t in the mood to encounter her and her posh fucking accent again.

He wasn’t sure how he would react if he saw her again. Part of him dreaded it, but another small part of him was eager. That part of him was weak. He wouldn’t fall for her charms again. But she had no charm, he had to remind himself fiercely.

“You are to stop her from reaching the saber. By any means possible.” And that feral grin was back on his boss’s face, and he had to stop the better part of himself from punching it off of his face.

Kylo took a few shaky breaths, steadying his tone before approaching the subject again. “So, where is the dossier?”

He was looking for the dossier that was compiled for him for these missions with as much information as possible to aid him.

“No dossier this time, Kylo. However, we have information they don’t. You forget that you have closer ties to Darth Vader than them.”

No dossier? How the hell was he supposed to go about this then, information they didn’t have or not. God, this was going to be the worst mission he had ever been assigned. He felt his mask slipping away again, and he fought even harder to keep it on, digging his fingers into his newly stitched wounds to distract himself. The pain flooded through him, keeping him steady. Calming him.

“We have some of the diaries detailing his childhood, which they, along with nobody else in the world has access to. I’ll have some excerpts faxed to you. They’re unsettling, but useful. I suggest you start your search in Senegal.”

Well he had never been to Senegal before.

“I expect you to be in Dakar two days from now.” Snoke said, a dark look gracing his eyes.

That meant he had around 48 hours to collect as much information from those excerpts, the archives, and online as possible. It was a short time frame, but he had worked in shorter. He nodded, and turned to exit when the cold voice cut through the silence again.

“What exactly happened in Australia?”

He gulped. “I had to incapacitate two men, but was able to retrieve the convict’s gold.”

“I will have somebody take care of that then.” Kylo really hoped he wouldn’t say it. He barely had enough time as it was to get ready for this next trip.

“Complete your incident report.”

“Yes sir.” He said sullenly, exiting the room.

Fuck.


	3. Discoveries, Discoveries

Rey was pacing back and forth outside of Leia’s office. It had been three weeks since her last meeting with the woman and she had come back almost every day. It wasn’t because she had anything she desperately needed to say. But rather because she thought it would help jog her memory.

Rey felt like she was forgetting something. An important question she had meant to ask weeks ago when Leia had first asked her for help. It was driving her _insane_.

Her new routine was to stand outside the office pacing for her entire lunch break until Rose glared at her and told her that she was giving her a headache. After which, she would retreat down to the basement to study more information with Poe and Finn. It was exactly the same today.

Except it wasn’t. She could feel it this time, practically within her grasp, at the tip of her tongue. And yet there it went again, fleeting and losing itself within her thoughts. Bloody hell if that didn’t piss her off.

She glanced up at the clock, seeing it strike one. At this point Rose’s glare would be burning so deep into her she could burn to a crisp. She chuckled recounting yesterday’s daily lunch pacing.

“I swear if you come back here again tomorrow, I will drop kick you so hard you won’t be able to get on that plane next week” the petite girl had threatened, pure murder in her eyes.

Coming from her it was like getting threatened by an adorable cat, and Rey hadn’t been able to stop the laughter that had come tumbling out of her.

That had led Rose to give her a look of such cold fury it had given her chills, and she had scurried away, almost falling down the stairs trying to get away from the tiny lady.

She realized that it was probably a good idea to leave before Rose came back from her lunch break, and she actually got smacked. And besides she had work to get back to. But why couldn’t she remember her question.

Rey had an amazing memory, especially vivid, and her ability to recount details was second to none. Which was why she was one of the best in the business, even if she wasn’t as globally recognized for it.

Around the corner, the light clack of heels began to grow and she almost tripped over herself running away. She threw herself in the elevator, watching as the steel doors slid closed in front of her.

The elevator began to move down, and she felt the weightless feeling in her stomach that often reminded her of rollercoasters. That was why she preferred to take the stairs. It was just unnatural.

The buttons flickered on and off as she passed the floors, finally reaching ground. She got out and moved through the lobby to the stairs when she slammed straight into a chest.

Stumbling backwards, she felt two hands around her waist reel her back to balance. She smacked them off her and took a few steps away, mouth curling into an expression of distaste before looking up.

She was not surprised in the least when she found Armitage Hux standing there, mirroring her expression. This was another thing. Over the past few weeks she had noticed him coming out of the basement where they were working one too many times. Which was odd, considering his job as Leia’s accountant was on the top floor.

However, every time she brought it up to Finn and Poe they just said that he was being friendly, dropping in and bringing them coffee. Which was even odder, because Hux didn’t even bring Leia coffee and he worked with her day in and out. As well, he wasn’t particularly known around the building for his kind and generous nature.

This was not the first time she had slammed into him, or felt his cold, slimy hands around her waist. This was the fifth time it had happened in a week. And goodness she had had enough.

She spoke his name with evident distaste “Hux.”

“Rey” he shot back, his lips turned slightly upwards into a disgusted smile, as if he had smelt something rotten, but didn’t want to comment on it.

What an asshole.

She gave him a tight smile, speaking to him like she would a stuck-up retail customer, “I hope this doesn’t become a regular occurrence Armitage. It’s getting really old having you feeling me up every day.”

He had the audacity to recoil before replying, smoothing down his rumpled sweater vest. “I would never attempt to do anything of the sort.”

That was another thing she hated about him. His pretentious clothing. That and his shifty eyes that always felt like they knew too much. About her. About everything. It was very unsettling.

“Well I should hope you wouldn’t attempt it, otherwise I will break your arms” she said, giving him the brightest smile she could muster.

He pursed his lips, an eyebrow slightly raised before stepping to the side and walking straight past her.

She had half a mind to smack him upside the head and strangle him with that solid black tie he wore every day. Who even wore a black dress shirt, tie, sweater vest, and slacks? It was an abominable outfit. And while her own blue denim jacket thrown on top of a white wrap dress and leggings wasn’t the most fashionable thing ever it certainly didn’t make her look like a stick in the mud.

She turned to watch him walk by her, his nose practically in the air. She was going to stick it to that little weasel one day, she could feel it in her bones. And it would be oh so sweet.

Turning back to the basement, she pushed open the door to lead her down. She went down the stairs, two at a time, before jumping off the last one and landing solidly, both feet on the ground.

“Peanut!” a voice called from the other side of the door. She shoved it open, and was immediately greeted by a chilly breeze. The basement could use more heat, but due to the fragile nature of some of the documents being preserved down there it had to remain that temperature.

Which was also why there were no windows.

She often found herself needing to step out for a breath of fresh air. Often being almost every hour. Otherwise it got too stuffy and she would find herself being reminded too much of the closet she had spent most of her childhood crammed in.

The man who had called her nickname waved her over excitedly, and she found herself moving closer to him. As she did so, he returned back to his spirited conversation with another man, who was looking seriously at some documents laid out on the table.

Poe pushed the glasses up his nose, while picking up some worn looking documents.

“Rey, Leia dropped by earlier and told us where to find these. Apparently, we have access to a few pages of a paper copy of Vader’s journals.” She heard him grumble under his breath “Would have been nice if she had told us earlier before we went digging through the internet for weeks.”

Finn clapped him on the back, drawing the other man close. “Yeah, well it would have been nice if she had told us we had them all along too.” He chuckled before looking at Rey, “She’s going to drop back in later to see some progress and research we compiled.”

Rey cocked her head to the side, tendrils of chestnut hair escaping from one of her buns, and falling in front of her face. She could feel something… like… nope. There it was again! She had just almost remembered.

She growled, making Finn turn towards her in alarm. “Are you okay?” he asked, a little bit weirded out.

“Yeah, yeah just can’t seem to remember something.”

It was Poe’s turn to pipe up, “Well the best way to remember something- Holy shit!”

“What?” Finn and Rey chimed in unison.

“I was holding the documents a little higher so I could read it better because the font is so small, and the light made all these tiny symbols show up in the text.”

“Give it to me.” Rey asked, and Poe handed off the documents to her gently.

“Leia definitely should have given these to us earlier.” Finn chuckled, leaning over to briefly kiss Poe.

Rey began to read:

_I’ve been struggling with something for a little while now. Debating whether to join the army or not. I have her now, and I know she’ll support my decision, but I’m not sure if having just her is enough for me. I just know that France isn’t doing as well for me now as it was in the beginning._

_Coming to this small town of Yvoire was exactly what I needed to get away to, away from home, away from…. I can’t even write it down; it infuriates me to even think about it. It breaks me. And I can’t afford to dwell on the past. I haven’t told her about it yet, which makes it all the worse._

_I choose to repress the memories as best as I can, because if I don’t they will consume me. I need a purpose; I can be good at something. She would want me to. I know she would. I’m starting to believe that war is a cause I must join. A just cause._

_So here I sit in the Garden of Five Senses wondering if I will ever experience such serenity again. I will return home to her someday. This I know, but this shall continue to be my favourite location from where I have started my new life. A life worthy of the light._

She pondered over the contents. Who was the her that Vader was talking about. And why did he sound almost normal? Rey had heard about what he did. Killed innocent people, men, women, and children all in cold blood without blinking an eye. He was an evil sadistic man was usually what they said. Enjoyed it even she had heard once, anybody who murdered that much had to have enjoyed it.

But there was something here that told her it hadn’t always been like that. He almost just sounded like a young man grappling with a troubling past.

As Rey held the documents up higher towards the yellowed, artificial coloured light coming from the ceiling she could see the tiny symbols clearly herself. They were almost all circular-ish patterns, and very satanic looking. She felt a spike of pure fear and dropped the documents onto the table in a fright.

“What the hell Rey?” Poe admonished, grabbing at them and gently arranging them into a pile, before pointedly glaring at her. “You know those are fragile. Next time I won’t let you touch them.”

She hurriedly apologized before rushing off into the tall bookshelves. She could feel her heart racing. What was wrong with her? It was just a bunch of symbols on a page. So why did it feel so inherently evil?

She didn’t like it. Not one bit.

The sound of the door opening snapped her back to reality.

“Leia” she could hear Poe’s voice reverberate breathily off the walls, and she emerged from her hiding spot between the books and files.

As she neared the older lady came into view, donning a grey robe-like dress.

“So what have you got for me?”

Poe scratched his head, an uncomfortable look on his face. “You know… it’s not much… due to the nature of the material.

Leia rolled her eyes, “Cut the bullshit Poe. What have we got?”

Finn spoke up, “We combed through internet archives for weeks, called up all the museums we have connections to, searched through all the libraries and even our own physical archives.” He paused before continuing, “The guy’s a ghost. He has one paragraphs worth of a Wikipedia article to his name and a few scientific journals about how mysterious he-“

Rey cut him off, “All we were able to figure out from that was common information. He started in France and all of a sudden went on a killing spree in multiple countries, that much we know, before gathering admiring cultists and fans who helped him continue those sprees before he died. The first real piece of good evidence we have are those few pieces of paper you helped us find, which have a bunch of symbols on them.”

She stopped, and then quickly added “But they also talk about someone, a she, and mention that he started a new life in France, where his favourite place was called the Garden of Five Senses. I think that would be a good place to start… the start of his life is bound to have something.”

Leia gave her a nodded before sighing, and collapsing in a chair. “I thought we had more to go off of than just this. He’s one of the most famous people in modern history, and I just didn’t know there would be this little on him.”

It hurt Rey to see her looking at them like that. But there was nothing to do about it. Vader’s death and life was one of the biggest mysteries on the planet. And there was so little on it most people didn’t even bother talking about him, but his admirers were very much prevalent in society, even today.

They had combed through everything they had access to. Everything they had access to. They had access to. Suddenly it seemed to click.

“Poe, pull up that Wikipedia page.”

He walked to the computer, typing for a few moments before pulling up a page and turning the laptop around so everyone could see the screen.

“Scroll down to the sources.”

He swiped two fingers on the trackpad and to where the citations were listed. Rey scanned through them. A few were news articles dating to the time when it had happened, a few research articles and some psychological interpretations and evaluations, and…. exactly what she was hoping for.

There, clearly typed out was a source they all knew.

FIRST ORDER ARCHIVES, IRELAND.

No wonder they hadn’t found anything. They hadn’t been looking everywhere at all. They hadn’t even thought about touching First Order Enterprises. But it all made sense, didn’t it? They owned everything they didn’t, so they had access to more.

“Look here guys. It says clearly that a source is First Order Archives, based in Ireland.”

“Shit!” Poe exclaimed, and Finn burst out into a surprised yet excited holler. Even Leia was smiling slightly.

“And where do we all know First Order Archives location in Ireland is?” she asked, as if she was a teacher quizzing her students.

Poe rushed back to the computer, typing furiously before pulling up another page.

“Old Library at Trinity College.” He said, almost like he couldn’t believe his eyes.

“Think about it! We’ve been searching everywhere we had access to. First Order probably has everything on this guy. They have everything on everyone and don’t give the public any access to it, we’ve known that since forever. If they even have this much they have to have even a little bit more. We might be able to find out even a little bit more.”

They all stood gaping at her.

“You’re a fucking genius Rey!” Poe yelled, and he and Finn rushed at her, sweeping her into a bone-crushing hug.

“So I’ll go to Ireland and try and get more information. And then I’ll jet off to France and see where I can start finding clues.”

She breathed out a sigh of relief. It could be at least something.


	4. Dublin, Sweet Dublin

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sort of a filler, but hopefully it'll give you some background. This book is going to be pretty long as just a warning, and i'll try to get the chapters in very fast. Ben and Rey won't be meeting and working together for a little while so we'll be following their stories and timelines individually in the beginning. I promise you lots of fluff and steamy interactions as we get into it!
> 
> As well, I would love to hear your theories as this goes along! Let me know in the comments :D

The plane ride to Dublin was less than enjoyable. First off, Leia had booked it for 4AM which meant that Rey didn’t get any sort of sleep in the night, or the morning considering the scratchy and uncomfortable seats (which had almost no leg room she might add). 

She didn’t even want to get started on her seatmate. Mainly because she was quite sure he had been watching her for the entire plane trip, and judging by the way his hand had crept towards her thigh anytime she closed her eyes for more than fifteen seconds….

It was probably best that she had been up all night.

The flight from Toronto to Dublin was around 7 hours without food and any internet, because Rey needed to do research but she didn’t exactly have money to throw around for choppy plane wifi. Besides, she had special authorization to specific sites that required a secure connection to work.

So she decided to watch a few movies to pass the time. The guy beside her had opted for some sort of romance movie (and checked to see if she was watching too a few times), probably to convince her that he was a sensitive romantic.

Which had steered her in the opposite direction, looking for a complex, thought-provoking movie. She settled on Interstellar, her favourite movie.

The look of disgust he had given her was more than enough to get her through the night. She guessed smarter girls weren’t his type.

This would be Rey’s first time in Dublin and while she was excited, it saddened her to know that she was there for work. There was no time to explore, more like a get in and get out situation. She had to follow the paper trail as fast as possible because she had no idea when or where it ended with only eight months left as the past month had been research only.

She had allotted one to two days at most for planning and scoping the area out and one day for carrying out her mission. That meant she was on the most ridiculous crunch of her life, and failing to acquire any sort of information was not an option.

She was not going to let Leia’s legacy go down in flames. This entire thing was riding on her now, and she would do her best not to blow it. Her entire career and life as well relied on it.

Rey promised herself she would never fail again after the last time. The look of disappointment in her pseudo mom’s eyes had been too much for her, especially considering the circumstances. Which is why she would never let go of her grudge towards _him_ no matter what.

Once again, even the slightest thought of _him_ made her blood boil, and she pulled out her phone to scroll through whatever had last loaded on her Instagram page.

A post about relaxation and zen from Leia’s travel-blogging friend Amilyn Holdo popped up and she found herself very invested in “aligning her auras”.

She swiped down further to read some articles and posts, one blazing with crimson red and black catching her attention. She paused to read it.

“The mystery has been solved! The sought after convict’s gold in Australia has been recently found by none other than star treasure-hunter-“

Her fingers clenched on the phone, turning white with the effort. Oh she was so NOT reading that.

She started on a list of ways to murder someone but banished the thoughts as the fasten seatbelt sign’s alarm chimed.

The plane lurched.

“Hello everybody, this is your Captain speaking. We seem to be experiencing some brief turbulence. As always, your safety is our priority so for the remainder of the flight, please keep your seatbelts fastened.”

A squeal beside her, made her jump in her seat, as a strong grip came to rest on her forearm. She turned to her seat mate who had gone pale as a sheet as was holding her in a death grip. What the fuck?

“We’re so gonna die” he ground out, voice shaking.

Rey almost burst into laughter right then and there, but instead masked a few of her snorts by pushing her denim jacket up to cover her face and prying his hand off her arm. The look of alarm he gave her, made her sink further into her seat to cover up her expression.

Coincidentally, that was the exact moment the air hostess had come by to give them their breakfast, which she had grabbed in a very unladylike fashion before stuffing as much of the bread roll in her mouth as possible to cover up her laugh.

Well if she hadn’t turned him off before she definitely had now.

Just two hours later the plane finally touched down onto the tarmac and she was grateful for having been able to put her baggage directly above her so she could get off and away as fast as possible.

She was about to move to get up when her seat mate stood up too. He looked at her, opening his mouth and closing it, before pulling out his phone and moving it towards her with a very confused look on his face before he shoved it back into his jeans pocket and raced away.

Well thank goodness for that.

She grabbed her bags from the overhead bin before exiting the plane, enjoying the fresh breeze of air that told her it had freshly rained as she passed through the tunnel to get back to the gate.

She followed the signs in the airport leading her to baggage claim, a bright smile colouring her face. She was as close to Britain as she would possibly get, in this lifetime at least. She couldn’t bring herself to go back there, but this place just reminded her of home. It was similar in the way the air smelt and the feel of the culture, but with its own uniqueness to it.

She skipped through the baggage claim to customs and finally found herself outside the airport, a large backpack on her back and a carry on in her hands and nothing else.

She called a taxi to take her to the hotel.

…….

Rey immediately found herself taken with the lively nature of the streets, even though all she had done was watch it from a taxi window so far.

She was just off of O’Connell Street in a cute little international hotel with a bar in its lobby that she found herself itching to visit later that night. She checked in, dragging herself up to the fourth floor to room 412.

She collapsed on the bed as soon as she got in, tossing her bags to the side and revelling in the clean smell of freshly washed sheets. Her eyes started to droop, but she was startled awake by the vibration in her jacket pocket.

Turning off airplane mode and connecting to the wifi she saw that Leia had sent her a text.

_“Be well, and stay safe.”_

Directly under that was another text.

_“You got this kid! - Han”_

She smiled. She had been waiting for this text.

Quickly, she opened up another chat titled “Rey’s Research Recruits” and shot them a quick text, _“Just landed”._

Immediately, the replies came flooding in.

_FIGHTERPILOTDAM:_

“ _Thank God, we were starting to worry”_

_FRIENDLYFINN:_

_“Find anything yet Peanut?_

_REY:_

_“Haven’t stepped foot outside of the hotel yet lol._

_Going exploring in an hour.”_

_FRIENDLYFINN:_

_“Okay. Text once you get back on wifi._

_See if you can find anything.”_

_FIGHTERPILOTDAM:_

_“Keep us updated._

_We’ll talk to Leia about an international data plan._

_No guarantees ;)”_

She grabbed her chargers out of the carry on and plugged the phone in before pulling the paper scans of the journals and some maps she had grabbed from the hotel lobby out.

She was looking for Trinity College, which she meant to head to immediately to scope out the area. The problem was she didn’t even know where the material was, even if more of it was there. But she was basically grabbing at straws for clues anyways, so it wouldn’t hurt to check.

Along with trying to find out where the material itself was, she had to plan out a way to procure it and grab a few pictures without getting caught by security, because she was definitely breaking a few rules to get it in the first place.

There was no way First Order Enterprises was going to let her waltz in and grab what she needed, especially not with her status. Once they found out who she was? She was so getting slapped with a lawsuit.

She couldn’t risk it. So this needed some meticulous planning. Or at least a plan stupid enough that it just might work.

She was used to going with the latter.

She assumed that she was going to The Long Room of the Old Library considering that was where some of the oldest and most valuable texts were, and if she knew anything about First Order Enterprises it was that they liked rubbing things in people’s faces.

So the most obvious place to go was probably where it was, for gloating purposes of course. Even if they weren’t gloating about this information.

The Long Room had over 200,000 books which meant she had to pinpoint something or at least get a few hours to herself to look over all the sections. This was going to be impossible, to look through that many books. But she didn’t really have a choice, did she? It was either this or straight to France with nothing more to go and who knew what she would find there.

But maybe she could get a few hours to herself… the library closed to the public at 5PM. If she stayed there after hours she would have all night...

Ruminating on that thought, she decided she was in desperate need of a shower.

…………

Rey pulled her hair up into her go to three bun hairstyle, grabbing her denim jacket, key card, map, phone and wallet before bolting out the door.

She found herself on the streets of Ireland feeling very at home indeed. It was still morning and people were milling about, the crowds on O’Connell street often breaking where there was a bar present. She made a mental reminder to check a few of them out on her trip here (what was the point of going to Ireland if she didn’t at least try a pint of Guinness?).

The Spire of Dublin parted the foggy mist in the sky, and she found herself looking straight up to try and find where it ended, earning a few glares from people she almost bumped into.

She came to a bridge and continued over it, using the map to guide her through the footpaths and charming streets. She rounded a few corners, ending up in a very lively looking area called College Street with boutique shops before finding a large old stone building that practically screamed history.

She walked under the archway of the front gate, seeing the open square in front of her and continuing through to where the map said she would find the Book of Kells. The massive buildings loomed over her and long line of tourists came onto her view. This was not good.

The Book of Kells and Old Library tour was paid, which meant she had to go through one to get to the other.

If she had to wait in a line, then she would have less time to scope out everything and find out where the security cameras were and where the material was located. But there was nothing to do about it, there was no way to get the tourists out of the way. So she was going to have to be very sneaky.

She stood in line.

…….

It took about an hour for her to finally get to the front, where she paid for her entrance ticket in euros and after being in the chilling cold was able to warm up. She pulled out the map again, pretending to gloss over it, as her eyes flickered up to the ceiling, searching for security cameras.

She located a few in the corners of the rooms as she passed through them, walking through the exhibit, before briefly stopping to look at the Book of Kells (which had the most gorgeous painted letters and writing she had ever seen) before continuing through to the Old Library.

When she finally got into the room she found that most of her view was being obscured by the heads in front of her. But somehow it didn’t matter. She was almost taken aback by the sheer size and number of books within the room. It was amazing.

If she had had a library like this when she was little she would have been the happiest girl in the world. She would have spent hours and days, maybe even weeks curled up in one of the corners. Safe…. Just her and all these wondrous books.

It almost made her a little bit sad.

The busts placed along every row were detailed and the atmosphere of the entire place almost made her a bit wistful. But now she found her biggest problem of the day. The sheer number of people.

Anybody could see her walk up those black metal spiral stairs to the upper level, or see her duck under the velvet ropes. And then she would be thrown out faster than she could blink. Or get thrown in jail.

On top of that, it was so massive she couldn’t see where the cameras were, although they were probably nestled in some corner tucked away on the upper level where they could get an entire view of the hall.

She might just have to say fuck it and try it anyways. But she knew better than that. Rey wandered along the rows, trying to peer in as deep as possible to see if she could read the spines of something. Anything.

She was slightly successful, and as far as she could tell the first few rows didn’t have anything of interest. She realized that she could possibly benefit from trying to discover which sections were which, and what each had in them so she managed to intercept a tour guide.

“Umm... I was just wondering, is each row like a specific section? Is there a time period or subject material that they’re grouped by?”

“Well, over here we have…”

The guide trailed on through all the sections, and Rey found herself ready to strangle her an hour in for how long she was taking. Especially since it seemed like everything what wasn’t up in the balcony was very, very old material.

‘Here we have-“

Rey couldn’t take it anymore. She cut in.

“What’s up there?”

“Oh, up there we have some of the newer material, and the very new material as everything published here in Ireland is added to the library.”

That was what she needed. The newer material. Or at least newer than what she was showing her.

“And here-“

“Thanks!” Rey cut her off and bolted off.

She checked her phone. It was 5PM. Guess it was time to go.

………..

Rey found herself looking for a bar immediately after her visit to the Old Library.

She wasn’t sure what it was for. To drown her sorrows over how hopeless this entire mission was feeling right now. To feel better about that stupid post she had read on the plane this morning. To think about how she had the capability to ruin her and the only family she had ever had’s lives. Or maybe even just to wash away the horror of her childhood. She couldn’t pretend that she knew.

Maybe it was even to forget about… Nope. She wasn’t gonna think about it. Not right now at least.

She found herself walking through some cobblestone streets to an area called Temple Bar, following the crowd and laughter. She could see how happy everyone looked, the night life surrounding her vibrant with neon lights and the clinking of glasses.

It made her wish she had some friends to spend the night with here, but it was just the way of the job. She didn’t have time for that sort of thing, she was more invested in the history of it all. The thrill of the hunt.

But that didn’t mean she didn’t miss the live while you’re young vibe of the twenties. She had grown up fast, and now she seemed far beyond her years. At least to herself.

Finally, she arrived in the most crowded area, a scarlet red building labelled Temple Bar, with planters filled to the brim with luscious greenery and flowers adorned it, along with many, many lights. People were stumbling out of, a pale ale in their hands and she was sure she could have heard the booming chatter and music coming from inside of it a mile away.

She opened the doors and walked in, immediately feeling the gush of warmth from how packed it was. And it was REALLY packed. All around her people were holding mugs, and she had to maneuver past them to reach the actual bar.

Luckily, someone had just gotten up and she dashed forward to get a seat, which resulted in a scathing glare from someone who had evidently had the same idea.

Up and down the bar people were chatting and laughing merrily, and it filled her with joy. But also a sort of sadness.

“What can I get for you?”

Rey looked up, seeing that the bartender was stood in front of her.

“Um, whatever tastes best to you? Your recommendation” she offered a smile.

“Alright, then” he said, whipping a towel over his shoulder and turning around to grab a glass.

“You know, their classic beer is the best” a man said next to her, lifting his mug up as if to show her.

“It looks like it” she answered.

“You seem like it’s your first time in Ireland.”

She opened her mouth to ask how he knew, but was cut off instead by him holding up a hand to halt her speech.

“I just know. Well let me give you a tip. Try the classic beer and go to the football match happening two days from now. It’s massive. Great way to get to know the place and its people.”

A football match? Rey stopped, the gears in her head turning.

He paused, gauging her reaction before continuing, “Everybody goes to see these things. A lot of places will probably be shut down until it’s over or the streets will be clear. All the tourists come out for it too.”

All the tourists. This couldn’t have been more of a coincidence if she tried. It was perfect, the football match meant that there would be less tourists out which meant the Old Library would be a lot emptier. She would have less chance of getting caught for sure.

She jumped up from her seat. She had to get on this.

“Thanks for the tip.” she gushed, before rushing out, shoving through the throngs of people.

“Wait-“ a voice called from inside, but she was already dashing down the streets back to the hotel before she realized.

Bloody hell. She had forgotten to get her beer.

Guess she wasn’t trying her first pint of Guinness tonight.


	5. Plans Go Wrong

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi Everyone!
> 
> So sorry for the update that took such a long time, I always like to update Darkness Rises before this one though so I have a method to my madness. Let me know what days and times you would like me to update the most and i'll see if i can get on it!
> 
> As always, enjoy! Let me know how i'm doing, I would love to hear your theories as well. This is going to be a double update, the second part coming later in the day and that will be a very short chapter. Love you all <3

Rey was nervous.

This was always her favourite part: the sleuthing. Usually she preferred to do it legally, it was less paperwork to deal with afterwards (or even the authorities). But something about sneaking around in the shadows, collecting clues right under other people’s noses. It made her feel like a spy, or even a little bit powerful.

Rey really had a dream job.

She got to be a spy, adventurer, archeologist, and historian all in one. What could possibly be better?

She operated in the daylight and the shadows, No, she hadn’t initially chosen this path, but she wouldn’t give it up for the world. She represented the best of the treasure hunters (the good ones at least) and she just wished the rest of the world would recognize her work as well.

If they weren’t all so far up First Order Enterprises ass maybe they would see the good things Resistance Treasures was doing as well. But there was so much that could go wrong today, and the thought churned her stomach.

The probability of failure was at around 95%, and while she hated working with a 5% chance. She was horribly desperate. Not only that, Rey had never broken into somewhere before. This would be her first time; she hadn’t had to in her last three missions.

At this point, she was going off on what she had seen in one of those bad heist movies from university that she barely remembered.

She could have just walked away from this and started in France. But where else was she supposed to get the information from? Who knew how much First Order was keeping hidden away? She needed as much as possible.

And she had to do it. For Leia.

Rey was _not_ going to fail her again.

She brushed aside her thoughts, ready to get on with her day.

Pressing to summon the elevator she waited for the familiar ding, before stepping in and clicking on the button for the ground floor.

The steel doors opened and she found herself in the marble and granite lobby once again.

The smell of fresh scones and donuts were wafting through the air and she resisted the urge to go grab one from the continental breakfast buffet.

Rey had a little bit of sightseeing to do.

She wanted to go check out the stadium and area where the football match was being held so that she could understand what all the fuss was about.

She had time to kill anyways before the game started and then she would be able to go back to the Old Library to do some reading, which she was sure would travel long into the hours of the night.

She had drafted up something that could barely be called a plan last night, and was really hoping that it would work. It banked on a lot of circumstance and not enough certainty, but it would have to do, as silly as it was.

She couldn’t give up on this information.

Rey found her way to the front desk, grabbing a map from one of the stands beside it beforehand.

“Can you tell me where the football match is being held today?”

The man jumped, eyes lighting up with excitement. It looked like football really was that much of a craze. She had never been one for watching sports matches, but she admired how happy people in Dublin seemed when they spoke of it.

“Right here is the stadium where everyone will be going for the match today. It’s a pretty big game too”, he circled a spot on the map with a red marker.

His lilting Irish accent bounced with excitement, “You can take these roads to get there, you might wanna walk though, the streets and sidewalks will be crowded. But, it’s better to get stuck behind someone who you can push out of the way than in your taxi. If you do decide to take a taxi, you might have to get out a few blocks ahead.”

“I think I’ll walk, it’s a perfect way to see the sights.” She wanted to make the most of her few days in Dublin, there was no point if she didn’t even see the city.

“The match starts at 2:00 make sure you’re there a little early otherwise they’ll be no seats and no alcohol left either.”

She laughed, Rey had been so looking forward to her beer, and she still hadn’t had any. She might have to stop for lunch somewhere to get some.

“Thank you!”

He smiled in response, and Rey burst out once again into the streets of Dublin. Ready for an adventure.

…………

She hadn’t been walking for too long when she found the crowds. Near O’Connell street it had seemed like there weren’t many people out in the morning, but as she moved farther away from it the number of people had exponentially grown.

Soon, Rey found herself surrounded in every angle by men, women, and children all with green and white plastered on their faces, clothes, and banners.

The name _Shamrock Rovers_ was on the back of many jerseys, and she assumed that was one of the football teams of Dublin.

She also found herself dealing with many elbows, and other stray body parts that seemed to get flung in her direction the denser the crowd became.

To her right, the taxis and cars were stopped on the street, evidently locked in a traffic jam.

She could hear the rambunctious cheering and chattering from the people around her, and she oddly felt happy to be there. It made her feel like she was part of something.

Which was why she let them lead her down the street and to the arena, and she drank in the green grass, streamers, and old yet beautiful architecture around her.

Each city was something new and different, all with their own charm. Rey revelled in it. She loved getting to know the people in the places she went and felt herself integrate little by little into the community.

That was why she had done it in Indonesia and Egypt and…. Mexico. This was only her fourth mission so far, so she was still technically a newbie to the whole thing. But she had a method which she followed, and it had worked since the first day.

The arena had even more people around it, dressed in various colours. So many that she couldn’t tell anymore which one belonged to which team.

The crowd swelled and she was pushed forward, stumbling straight into a very _very_ tall man’s back. She looked up and saw tousled black hair. Her heart dropped to her stomach.

It couldn’t be him. She had almost memorized the back of his head two years ago.

Her heart began to race, and embarrassingly her palms became a little sweaty. Although the nerves about her mission later in the day seemed to dissipate, giving her momentary relief.

If it really was him she was going to smack him. So hard that he saw stars. And then maybe she would kiss him.

_Kiss him?_

What the hell was she thinking! She was not going to kiss him. She was going to smack him and storm off just to rub it in. She needed to get her mind out of the gutter, it would be utterly disgusting to kiss him.

_No it wouldn’t. You would love it._

_SHUT UP!_

_You can’t tell yourself to shut up._

“Shut up!” she yelled. Oh shit. She actually said that part out loud. She watched as various people turned around to give her weird looks and a few of them tried to move away from her. She awkwardly smiled back at them.

She was pushed forward again by someone and found herself smacking into the back of the tall guy with the black hair who she refused to believe was _him_ once again. This time he turned around, and looked down at her.

It wasn’t him.

She smiled apologetically at the very tall man and then pulled out her phone, checking the time.

It was almost 12 and she wanted to stop over at one of the little bars for a bite to eat. So she turned around and shoved her way back through the crowd, forcefully.

She tried to supress the feeling of disappointment that crawled into her chest.

It didn’t work.

………….

Feeling really satisfied with her lunch, she ambled along down the street. It was just a few minutes past two and Rey could see the Old Library from her place down the road.

Her phone vibrated in the pocket of her jean jacket, and she pulled it out. Seeing the notification on the screen.

_FIGHTERPILOTDAM:_

“ _Got you that international plan :)_

_Let us know how the it goes._

_We’re rooting for you!”_

She shot back a text.

_REY:_

_“Will do! Let’s hope for something juicy.”_

She really hoped this wasn’t just a dead lead. It was reckless. And highly stupid.

She had never attempted something without such little planning in her life. It was borderline insane, and no normal person would attempt anything she was about to do in fear of _definitely_ getting caught. But she had told everyone that she had a plan, and Rey had nothing to lose.

Except maybe a bit of time if she ended up in jail and got slapped with a lawsuit. She could evade the authorities. She had done it before when she was younger, but the lawsuit might be harder to shake.

She tucked the device back into the jacket pocket and ducked back under the archway, silently praying it would go well.

She crossed the square, turning the corner and saw… no line.

Perfect.

Rey quickly paid for her ticket and hurried in. There were almost no people around the Book of Kells and just as many in the Old Library.

She had half expected there to be more.

Maybe luck was on her side today.

Majority of the people were crowded near the exit of the library, and she scanned the room looking for any guides.

There were none.

Wow. Rey really had all the luck in the galaxy. It made absolutely no sense, but Rey needed that information so badly that even if the room had been packed she might have just gone ahead and done it anyways.

She furtively glanced at the velvet rope beside her, behind which was a cast iron spiral staircase.

She was banking on the fact that whoever was manning the security cameras was bad at their job. Just another reminder, once again that her plan was not fleshed out AT ALL.

The room cleared and she took her chance, ducking under the rope and dashing up the staircase. Hoping that the rattling under her weight wasn’t making too much noise.

She was now on the upper level.

Rey moved into one of the sections and looked. She didn’t even know what she was looking for but she had time. Lots of time. And she was going to utilize it to the best of her ability.

A new group of people came into the room and Rey resisted the urge to hide. In order for the half-plan to go smoothly she needed to pretend that she belonged there.

So she held her head high and continued looking. She pulled out a book checking for the publication date.

  1. And it was about Belfast.



She pulled out a few more.

_Ancient Mesopotamia._ Wasn’t the upper floor supposed to be the newer section?

She groaned.

_The Dark History of the World._

Maybe this was it?

Rey opened the book and checked the table of contents. Not a single mention of Darth Vader.

This was hopeless. Maybe it was foolish to give up three books in, but she was really considering it. She knew when she had made the plan it was nonsensical and probably wouldn’t work (she had made it half drunk on cheap vodka at 1AM in worry).

_No. You can’t give up. Think about your future. Think about Leia’s future. I’ll tear her apart. It’s only been one month since you took this mission on. If you don’t get anything from here you can always go to France and start there._

_But if I give up now then I can skip all the unpleasantness that’s going to come with this when I get caught._

_You’re better than this! You know you are. Come on!_

She sighed, feeling resigned to herself. She was right, she wasn’t one to give up easily.

Rey cracked on, scanning sections and pulling out books, checking their contents. All of them turned up empty. The hours passed by and Rey found herself three out of probably twenty sections in when the sun began to set. She checked her phone seeing that it was one minute from 5PM.

Strangely, not a single guide had been in and not a single person had called her out for getting in their pictures.

She was _so_ easy to see. She knew that.

Which made her feel a little strange. Everything was just too easy (except for finding the actual damn material).

Why had nobody come to get her?

Suddenly, an alarm sounded and the library was bathed in red lights. Shit. Too soon. Maybe somebody had found her.

She did not want to go to jail today.

The blaring shrieks told her to leave as fast as possible. She crammed the book she had in her hands back into its spot on the shelf, hoping that she wasn’t fucking up its honestly paper-thin and delicate pages.

She watched as the few people below scattered, running around like headless chickens to get out, until finally the room was clear once again.

Now was the perfect time to escape.

The sound of a lock sliding brought her attention to the other side of the floor.

The door opened and she froze.

“Hey! Who are you?”

Rey went into panic mode.

Now somebody had seen her too. She was dead wrong. It was not too easy. Nothing about this was easy!

Her own set of sirens began to blast in her head. _Abort! Abort!_

The figure at the other end of the room, began walking briskly towards her.

She looked around. The nearest set of stairs was towards whoever was coming to get her.

She was going to have to risk it. She darted around the bookcase, towards him before turning sharply into another section. Directly in front of her were the stairs. She scrambled over to it, grabbing onto the rungs, about to propel herself down at lightning speed when she looked back to gauge how far away the figure was now.

That was a mistake.

The figure was now identifiable as a man.

And he was holding a taser right at her.

Oh she was so fucked now.

“Stop right there, and put your hands up where I can see them.” He moved closer to her and immediately she could see a spark of recognition light up in his eyes.

It was the man from the bar.

He dropped his arm holding the taser, to pointedly accuse her, “You!”

Rey had two options here. Fling herself down the stairs and hope he didn’t have fast enough reflexes to taser her while she did so. Possibly suffer an injury which would require a hospital or even death considering how old and hard the cast iron was.

Or…. She could charge right at him and disarm him.

Rey chose the latter.

She turned around and barrelled straight at him. 

“What are yo-?”

She made contact. _Hard._ Slamming into his chest and knocking him into the bannister that was separating him from falling off the upper floor. The taser clattered to the ground, spinning away from them on the polished wooden floor. His head whipped backwards, hitting the solid oak.

The man crumpled to the ground, groaning and clutching his head.

Now what?

The alarms were still going. She had time to bolt.

Voices began to echo below her.

Shit, it had to be some sort of security. There was no way she was getting out now. She could only really do one thing, and thankfully she was great at it.

Rey chose to hide.

She walked over to the man rolling on the floor and got behind him, bending down to grab the collar of his shirt.

She clamped a hand over his mouth and began to pull, dragging him down the hall.

She couldn’t let the security see this, he may be incapacitated but he could still tell them where she had gone.

This was turning into too much of a spy mission for her.

He was heavy, but Rey was pretty strong, and she managed to drag him all the way back to the door he had come out of.

She was pretty sure he had blacked out on the way there. She felt really bad. She hadn’t meant to hit him that hard.

The voices coming from the floor below started to get louder, and Rey laid the man off to the side a little bit before pulling the oak door open.

She kept the door open with her foot, grabbing him under his arms, fingers wrapping slightly on his shoulders and tugging.

She pulled as hard as she could, dragging him into what looked like an office.

She heard the security enter the hall, “Come on.”

Rey pulled the door shut, and locked it as slowly as possible.

A groan pulled her attention back to the man on the floor and she moved back over to him, hovering over. Waiting for him to wake up.

The alarms shut off, and she could still hear them ringing slightly in her ears.

What the hell? They couldn’t have looked around that fast.

The man stirred beneath her, eyes opening slightly before shutting again, adjusting to the light.

What was she going to do when he woke up? The terrible plan had gone to shit so fast.

A slight mumble rolled of his lips, “Where am-“

Rey reached for his shirt collar, and pulled him up by it with both hands, in a threatening way without thinking. His eyes widened and he suddenly seemed very awake.

Well now she had done it. Guess she had to go for some sort of interrogation mode. But what to say?

They stared at each other.

“Are you going to?”

“Shut up.”

His jaw clamped shut immediately.

They stared at each other for a few more seconds, an uneasy expression crossing his face.

Rey had an idea. This guy worked here. Maybe she could grill him about where to find info about Vader.

He opened his mouth again, and she glared. He shut his mouth again.

“Tell me where I can find information on Darth Vader.”

He frowned, before blinking five times in succession.

He was lying, and had an extraordinarily easy tell.

She didn’t want to do this really; threatening people was not in her nature. But she needed this information, and if he knew something about it, she had to get it out of him.

Rey hardened her voice.

“I’ll ask you again, where can I find information on Darth Vader.”

Something came to view in her left-hand side peripheral vision, and Rey threw her arm up to cover her head, in a block.

His fist fell against it, not doing any damage.

He blinked, and then brought his leg up and kicked her in the side.

She fell over, hooking her legs around him, dragging him on top of her due to her grip on his shirt collar.

He was now laying on top of her, arms caging her head in, dangerously close to her face.

They were in an incredibly awkward and intimate position, and she would have found it in her to blush if she wasn’t so focused on getting out from under him.

He began to lift himself off of his forearms, and moved until he was on all fours, her legs still wrapped around his waist.

He tried to swat away her hand off his collar with one arm, but her grip was too tight, and Rey took it as her chance.

She twisted her body so that her butt was out to the right side, and pushed her hips up into him.

His mouth fell open in shock, and she grimaced.

Ew. He probably thought she was making a pass at him.

It made him teeter to the side slightly, off balance, and Rey took it as an opportunity to throw her leg over him a little bit more.

She head-butted him. Hard. And let go of the collar as he reared up to bring his hand to his forehead. She unlocked her legs from his waist, but not before using one to kick him in the forehead as well.

He fell backwards and she shoulder rolled backwards, before scrambling to her feet.

She didn’t want to have to do this. But it was the only weapon she had, and Rey _needed_ that information. She had gone too far to go without it. 

So she grabbed the pocket-knife she always had for safe keeping out of her boot and advanced on him before straddling his stomach.

She leaned down and pressed her forearm to his throat like a blade, pinning him down to the floor. Keeping the other hand holding the knife in his line of sight, close to his face.

“I won’t ask you again. Tell me where I can find information on Darth Vader.”

He began to shake, voice trembling like a leaf, “Okay! Okay!”

His arms raised up on either side of her in a frantic gesture that looked like surrender.

She eased some of the pressure from her forearm to let him speak freely.

“I was asked to retrieve it recently for some higher-ups. The dossier is still on my desk, I haven’t put it back yet. I got too lazy and the paperwork keeps piling up and then next thing I knew it was a mon-“

He was rambling, but Rey was thinking.

“Which higher-ups?” she moved the knife closer to his cheek.

“I-I don’t know! I swear I don’t. Please let me go, I really haven’t done-“

“Shut it. Everything I need is in that dossier?”

“It has everything we have here on him. EVERYTHING. Completely confidential to the public. There’s barely anything in i-“

That was all she needed to hear.

“Sorry about this.” And she truly was. She hadn’t meant for it to go this far.

“Sorry? Sorry about what?” he managed to get out, voice full of terror.

Rey raised the hand with the knife in it and watched as he screwed his eyes shut waiting for the stab to come. But she just brought the hand back before smacking the hilt of the knife into his head.

His eyes rolled back and shut, and he slumped a little.

Now for the dossier.

Tucking the knife back into her boot, she padded over to the file on the desk in front of them, solid black with gold inlay which read: PROPERTY OF FIRST ORDER ENTERPRISES.

Of course they had fancy fucking dossiers too. Couldn’t they just get it from the dollar store like everybody else?

She opened it, pulling out her phone and spread the contents out onto the table in front of her.

She didn’t know how long he would be out so she had to move quickly, which meant there wasn’t much time to read the few pages and police report that was inside. Wow, there really wasn’t anything in the file really.

But maybe quantity was made up for with quality.

She took pictures of each of them, flipping them over to make sure she got the backs as well. Then, Rey came across some photos at the back of the file.

She almost threw up in her mouth. Rey Niima was no stranger to violence and blood. Broken limbs, huge wounds. They didn’t scare her or disturb her.

This did.

She was looking at photos of bodies. Multiple bodies, all stacked one on top of each other. Blood dripping down from everywhere. Just piles of what looked like rotting flesh.

Some of them looked staged, but were obviously very real. And some were just too close. As if whoever had taken them had wanted her to never sleep again.

The worst one was a close-up picture of a body. Mutilated beyond belief, the only thing recognizable being the obsessive scratches of the same symbol she and Poe had found on the diary pages Leia had given her.

She swallowed down her bile. It was absolutely disgusting. What sick and twisted person did something like that?

Rey took a picture anyways, clues were clues. Fuck, now she was going to have this on her phone. She was not going into her camera roll again for a while if she could help it. She couldn’t blame anyone who didn’t want to be involved with this mission.

She shoved the papers and photos back into place, and closed the dossier.

What was she supposed to do now? Just because the alarms went off didn’t mean the place wasn’t still crawling with security.

She needed a way to get past them. Some sort of way to make her unrecognizable. Her eyes found the unconscious body on the ground.

He didn’t need his clothes, right?

…………….

Rey didn’t want to leave her clothes behind.

Sure, the guy on the floor didn’t have any save for his boxers (she really didn’t need to see that), but these were her clothes!

She hadn’t packed many for the trip to save space for other gear. But now she was regretting it.

She looked around for something, anything. She didn’t have time for it, but she could care less.

Her eyes landed on a brown leather briefcase. Perfect. She stuffed her clothes inside it, tossing all the papers tucked in it out. He was definitely getting fired because of her, but if he hadn’t tried to taser her maybe she wouldn’t be in this position.

_But then you wouldn’t have gotten the dossier._

She made a good point. But she was still going to blame it on him, because this was the worst thing she had ever done in her life and she was too far gone to not just do it all.

Rey walked out of the office, briefcase in hand.

She made her way down the stairs, and back into the exhibition room for the Book of Kells.

“Hey! You!” she froze.

She took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves. All she had to do was pretend that she worked there. Then she could be in and out of there fast as light.

“What are you doing here at this hour?” a man in a padded black vest with a gun attached to a holster on his side asked. The word SECURITY was plastered on his front in what she assumed was also Irish.

“Umm… I work upstairs. In the… office.”

He narrowed his eyes in suspicion. “Well then why haven’t I seen you before…” his eyes glanced down at her name tag. ”Taylor.”

Shit! She didn’t even realize she had a name tag. Thank god for a unisex name.

“I’m new.” She said, more as a question.

He nodded his head, looking like he didn’t believe her one bit.

“Alright, have a safe trip home.”

Her mouth almost dropped open in shock.

“You too” she said, a little too excitedly. She rushed away from the security guard. She was not taking any chances.

Rey practically ran off of the campus, trying her best to get away. And she didn’t stop running really until she got back to the hotel.

As she entered the lobby the receptionist from the morning gave her an odd look that said “Why aren’t you wearing the same clothes as this morning?”

She wanted to avoid questions at all costs. Get in her room, and then get out of Dublin as fast as possible, so she answered his silent question.

“Shopping!”

She didn’t look back until she was up in her room. Rey dragged her phone out of her pocket.

_REY:_

_“Got it! Haven’t taken a look at it yet, sending over immediately._

_Hope it’s good!”_

_FRIENDLYFINN:_

_“YES! GO REY!”_

_FIGHTERPILOTDAM:_

“ _Woo! There’s our team captain!”_

Rey sent over the images, trying to keep her eyes closed when she attached the last pictures she had taken of the photos.

_FRIENDLYFINN:_

_Is typing…._

_FIGHTERPILOTDAM:_

_Is typing….._

She waited for their answer. But none came. She switched chats.

_REY:_

_“Leia. I did something bad.”_

_LEIA:_

_“What happened?”_

_REY:_

_“I had to hurt someone to get the information.”_

_LEIA:_

_“Comes with the territory._

_Whatever it takes._

_Get some rest.”_

A notification from REY’S RESISTANCE RECRUITS popped up on the screen again and she switched over to it.

_FIGHTERPILOTDAM:_

_“Sorry. Finn had to go throw up._

_Next time give us a warning LOL”_

_REY:_

_“Poe book me a flight._

_For tomorrow morning please.”_

_FIGHTERPILOTDAM:_

_“Sure Rey._

_Hey are you alright?_

_Those pictures are a lot.”_

_REY:_

_“Fine :D”_

And then she sprinted to her own bathroom to throw up.

She was not fine at all.


	6. Conspiracies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone!
> 
> This was the double update chapter I was supposed to post two days ago, but I assumed that I had already put everyone on information overload. So get ready for things to start amping up (kinda)!

Six men are working in the tiny warehouse they call home when their phone begins to ring.

“Shit, must be another job. Vicrul get the phone” the tallest one, Cardo says.

“We just got back from the last one.”

“I know, fucking get the phone.”

Vicrul picks up the phone, unsurprised to see the number flashing on the screen.

“It’s them _again.”_

“Of fucking course it is” another, Ap’lek, chimes in exasperatedly.

“Well the alarms at their archive in Ireland did just get raised.” Says one, Ushar.

The rest of the men all immediately sit up straight.

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah Ushar are you sure? Nobody has the balls to steal anything from them.”

“I’m deadly sure.”

“Lemme see.”

The five men rush over to where Ushar is sitting at a table, crowding around one of the many monitors set up, seeing a notification on one of them. Just above it are multiple security cameras all showing the same thing. A girl.

They watch as a man approaches her and she knocks him out cold.

“Damn.”

“Ushar, ID her. I wanna know who this bitch is.”

The man types away at his laptop, capturing a picture of her face and zooming in, running it through multiple ID searches. The computer scans through profiles, before finding the right one.

Cardo is the first to speak, “Rey Niima. Huh. Who is she?”

Ushar runs her name through the database, letting the system comb through files upon files before hers comes up. He scrolls, looking for important information. He finds it.

“She works with Resistance Treasures.”

The men all let out noises of shock and surprise.

“You’re fucking kidding me. He’s not gonna be happy about that.”

“Well maybe that’s why he’s calling.”

They realize that the phone has stopped ringing.

“Shit, Vicrul did you not pick up the damn phone?”

Vicrul freezes.

“I mean we were all looking at the comp-“

“Shut up” Ap’lek says, pulling a pocketknife out of his jacket, pointing it at him. “Call them back.”

The man puts his hands up in surrender, backing away to go get the phone while smirking. The others laugh and clap Ap’lek on the back.

“You need to stop pointing that thing at everyone man.”

“I can’t help it, it’s fun.”

Suddenly, the phone is on speaker, and all of them can hear the voice coming through it loud and clear.

“Next time pick the phone up when I call.”

They look to each other, but do not argue.

Vicrul does the talking for them, “Fine.”

“I have a new job for you. I want you to kill Rey Niima.” The voice says.

“Alright. How much do we get for it?”

“You will be paid handsomely for your work. As per usual…”

“Understo-“

“I would like to be alerted next time there is a breach in one of our security measures.”

“How did you even know in the first place then if we didn’t tell you?”

Trudgen snickers from across the room.

“Hold your tongue. Might I remind you that I do not take kindly to those who undermine my authority.”

Kuruk speaks up, “We might do your dirty work, but we do not take kindly to being ordered around either.”

“Know your place in this organization _my little knights,_ or I’ll make sure you will _._ I hired mercenaries to take care of things discreetly. I could have you all in jail by daybreak tomorrow morning.” The voice says darkly.

“Well if you did that you would have to go too, so nice try.”

“Always so difficult every time I speak to you. You are not above me. I know things… about each one of you.”

And with that they all shut up.

“Nice to know I have your attention” the voice says.

“I have a treasure hunter under my employ, Kylo Ren, who is currently on a hunt to find Darth Vader’s Saber. Rey Niima is trying to complete the same mission. I need you to eliminate her before she is able to do so.”

“Yes sir.”

“No harm… is to come to Kylo Ren over the course of this mission.”

“Understood.”

“Good. Take any measures you need to in order to dispose of her quietly. The media cannot get hold of it, and neither can the feds in any country you will be going to.”

“Countries?”

“Yes. I will supply you with the locations. Keep me updated.”

The voice pauses a moment before adding in, “And shut down the alarms remotely.”

The call ends, and the knights regroup around the computer to look at both the files of Kylo Ren and Rey Niima.

It’s time to get to work.


	7. Planning and Time Crunches

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone!
> 
> I'm sorry it's been a while since the last update. This is a bit of filler with a lot of context and clues as to what Darth Vader's past was like and showing the different directions our favourite couple will be pursuing at the start. 
> 
> Hope you all enjoy it! Let me know what you think :)

One month earlier

Kylo was basically running on fumes at this point.

The past three days had been akin to a certain kind of hell for him. It had consisted of sleepless nights and endless hours poring over a couple pieces of paper and phone calls while the overcast light of his desk lamp created shadows bigger than his expectations. Which were honestly really small considering the amount of information he had to go on, which was very little.

He had spent the better part of the past few days ringing up every single archive listed in Snoke’s manifest of property he owned. It was at that point when Kylo considered giving up, having just called over 150 archives and receiving the same answer from every single one – _nothing._ It was utterly infuriating, but he had managed to keep his temper in check as he called one last archive, the First Order Enterprises location in Ireland. And for the first time in what felt like forever he received some good news.

They had a dossier with the slightest bit of information, but at least it was something. He immediately had it scanned and faxed over, and within just thirty minutes Kylo was sitting with the newest piece of information in his hands, freshly printed, and …. Utterly horrifying.

Whatever he had expected… was not this. Kylo knew that his grandfather was not a good man. How could he be when he was considered the most notorious man in history – committer of mass genocide against _anyone_ and _everyone_ in multiple countries.

It had been hard coming to terms with it initially when he has found out, as unpleasant and telling as that experience had been. Honestly, he had thought that maybe he would get a few more diary pages out of the entire thing but unfortunately he got a lot more. A police report, some pages, and then there was the pictures. The five crackers he had just about found time to eat for dinner were suddenly tumbling around in his stomach.

Kylo Ren had seen many things in this life time, but he certainly hadn’t expected this. And he definitely didn't fuck with cult shit, which is exactly what this was starting to look like considering the obsessive symbols everywhere being carved into bodies and scribbled all over diary pages.

He hated it. Hated being related to this. He may not have the best moral code but this was above and beyond any semblance of normalcy. As if his family wasn’t bad enough… now there was this?

Did Leia and Han know the extent of her father’s crimes? Was that why they never spoke of him? Or was it because of Luke? Because he told them to never say anything...

Either way he had found out, and he wished it had been different. Because maybe then he wouldn’t be so upset all the time. But they had abandoned him first, resigned him to the monster and seeing what that _monster_ had really done… it sickened him. Made him hate them even more, if that was even possible.

They didn’t deserve his thoughts or his sympathies. They didn’t deserve anything. He took a few stilling breaths to calm himself down, finding his fingers digging into his wounds once again to ground himself. It was an awful habit, but it worked.

And he only stopped when he felt warm liquid start to stream down his fingers, and he realized he had reopened another wound _again,_ which meant he would most certainly have a nasty scar by the time he actually let it heal.

He got up off the couch, moving quickly to the sink to wash off his hands before tenderly lifting his black sweater. It wasn’t too bad, but he needed to redress it and probably stitch it up again. Good thing he was used to it by now.

He grabbed the bandages from the overheard cabinet and walked over to the bedroom where he found the sewing box with medical grade thread that he could use.

Kylo sat on the bed, threading the needle and then bracing himself for the first stab, and pinching his skin together. One last deep breath out and then he began to sew the damaged skin together.

The pain was a little intoxicating, and at least was a good distraction as all thoughts of his fucked-up family dynamic fell away. All that was left was him and the silent sounds of his apartment.

He closed his eyes for a few seconds, trying to imagine what it would be like to feel _her_ fingers there instead. Soft and gentle he imagined them moving deftly, weaving expertly.

And when she was finished, her hands came up and tangled in his hair and he could swear it was the best feeling in the world. She moved closer, and her lips hovered over his still as a ghost. He could almost feel the warmth from her body on his skin, basking in it.

And then she was gone.

Everything was back to normal. And Kylo was left feeling like he had come into contact with a ghost. Because sometimes it felt like she was right there next to him… or that maybe he had experienced it all with her before.

What he wouldn’t give to do it again.

But it was wrong. It was all _wrong._ Because she wasn’t here and he _hated_ her. With a passion.

That girl was just like them. Like all the rest of them. She would fight with them, and most probably die with them. She was willing to risk her life back then too just for the sake of besting him. But she had failed, and he would never let her forget it.

And this saber…. All it meant was endless death and black skies of ash. But somehow he found that if it meant he could win this time. Show her once again that he could do it. Show them all.

Maybe they might even be… proud? No. He didn’t care whether they were proud of not.

That saber. It was rightfully his. A family heirloom. And once he had it he would raze that sorry excuse for a company straight to the ground.

Then there it was again. _“Ben”._

The fleeting sound of her voice echoing against the silence, and he delved deeper, finding even more anger within him as his traitorous heart started to race.

It flared up within him until he could almost see red, and then his hands were all over the place, smashing plates and throwing vases. Tearing pictures off the wall. And when he came back to himself there was glass all over the floor and an impending noise complaint definitely coming towards him for the twentieth time in a row.

Shit. He had done it again.

He couldn’t believe that he had gotten so carried away. He barely had left than twenty-four hours and he wasting his energy on her? It wasn’t worth it.

Kylo settled back down onto the couch, looking over the newly found diary pages and trying to avoid any eye contact with the gruesome photos he had printed. They didn’t speak of much, just more of his time in France and his favourite place there. But Kylo already knew enough about that portion of his grandfather’s new life which was supposed to be a do-over in a small town in France.

No, it was the police report that intrigued him. He flipped through it, observing the mugshot attached and the man’s information. Kylo Ren didn’t understand who this was and and why his file was in a dossier about his grandfather. But he suddenly understood when he came upon the reason for arrest and attached death certificate.

The man, Langston Mar, was an avid follower of Darth Vader. A cultist who believed he was the second coming of some kind of God, meant to purge the Earth (that was absolutely sickening) and that he was born to carry out Vader’s will. He could swear some people were delusional.

The man had committed suicide after being taken into custody, consuming a small cyanide capsule that he managed to keep on his person. Supposedly, he led the group of cultists and was responsible for brainwashing and conditioning many people into the cult by force or for protection of their family. Vader never did anything to stop him. This man had never had any real contact with him.

It was just as good as his grandfather endorsing it himself.

His mother’s silence and use of the name Anakin instead for all those years made sense.

Kylo Ren tucked those papers back into the dossier and pulled out his phone to look at the scans that Snoke had sent him of more diary pages.

This is what he was mainly basing his research on – something that Resistance Treasures didn’t have and would never have any access to.

The diary pages detailing Vader’s childhood in Senegal.

Truthfully, even he hadn’t known anything about his life prior to France before Snoke had given him this information, so it was initially shocking.

But after skim reading it he understood that there was something inherently wrong with the way the boy was describing things, and that was probably why the man had decided to flee to France to start anew. Something evidently very terrible had transpired in the country of his birth. And Ben needed to figure out whether that was a good place to start at all, so he decided to read it again, slowly and more thoroughly this time translating the scrawl in French as he went.

_It happened again. This time I was there to see it. Mother left and didn’t come back until early morning. Or at least she was physically there… but she wasn’t at the same time. Sometimes I feel like I should do something about it, but I don’t want to. I’m scared of getting hurt. Mother says it’s alright to be scared. I went to the village today and played with a few other kids. I don’t like them very much, they annoy me._

_I’m not allowed to play with them anymore after what happened last time even though I swore it was an accident, but nobody believed me. It wasn’t actually an accident anyways, I lied, so I don’t mind. I took some more parts to make my droid today. It isn’t working out very well though and the old man is running out of parts for me to steal so I think I’ll have to stop._

_I don’t like anybody in this place because they’re easy to trick. It’s no fun playing with them and nobody believes me because apparently I lie a lot. I heard some men talking with mother this morning so I guess it’ll be another day hiding under the bed with the knife. But that’s okay because mother told me she would take me to see Lake Retba to make up for it. I also made a new symbol to put on the droid when I’m done._

A symbol was drawn directly under it, similar to the ones he had observed on the other sheets of paper from his desk lamp. Kylo could only assume that Lake Retba was a place that Darth Vader as a child had liked very much. That was a location to look out for. He swiped on his phone, moving to the next page which was dated a few days after the first.

_It’s been a while since mother left with the men in the night. I think it’s probably been around four nights and three days. I’m really hungry. We don’t have a lot of food in the house and no water because mother usually goes to fetch it around this time. I hope she comes back soon. I like her a lot._

_Sleeping under the bed isn’t very comfortable but she told me to never sleep on the bed when she’s away so I won’t. I think maybe I should go looking for her in the village or take a long walk to go look for her. Maybe somebody will know those men._

Another entry from two days later was underneath it.

_I went to the village yesterday and found out that those men took her and aren’t going to return her. I’m going to go find mother and bring her back home. Somebody told me they overheard where the men said they were taking her. I’ve been there a few times. I’m going to follow them and grab her and bring her back. I’ll leave my symbols everywhere so I know how to get back._

Kylo swallowed, noticing the very short entry directly under that which marked the page in a very jarring way. There was no date of entry.

_Blood blood blood. Came out of everywhere. Came from everything. I dream about it. I think about it. It’s the only thing I can think about. I want mother._

The page was splattered with faded red splashes and was thoroughly mingled with the ink used to write the actual words on the paper themselves. He scrolled once more to find one final page.

_A nice lady came to the house today with a man. I didn’t want them to come in at first because I was scared but they noticed there was nobody home but me. The nice lady said she was a diplomat and the man said he was her bodyguard. She’s very pretty. I like her a lot. She asked me to go with her back to France and I was going to say no so that I could stay with mother but I want to accept._

_They’re both staying at the house tonight so tomorrow I’ll go with them and then we’ll be in France and I can forget everything and pretend it never happened. I can’t wait. There will be so many people there. So many people to trick. I threw the droid out when they went out to the village. It yelled a lot when I broke it, but I had a lot of fun doing it._

_I want to keep having fun. I think I’ll be able to have fun in France. I wish mother had taken me to Lake Retba earlier though. The water would have been very pretty during this season._

That was where they ended, and while it left many gaps it was clear to Kylo that if he wanted to look for physical locations as he had been instructed to for his journey. Which meant that Darth Vader’s house and Lake Retba were the places to go. It was a good thing Snoke knew where he used to live, otherwise he would have never found the information.

And considering the amount of symbols the boy had drawn on the pages of the diary and on the bodies of those who were killed in the photos, Kylo Ren assumed that they were exactly what he was looking for. Obsessive scratchings could prove useful, and he was going to follow them as long as he could.

He glanced up at the clock ticking slowly on his wall.

There were simply five hours until his flight, and he still had to do Snoke’s bloody incident report.

Kylo was royally screwed.

………..

With just thirty minutes left until his flight Kylo Ren was very nervous. He had just managed to get past the bustling security checkpoints and was able to reach the gate just as they were announcing boarding. However, there were two problems that seemed to arise. First off, there were apparent problems with his flight booking and second – he had been downgraded to economy.

Now, Kylo wasn’t the type of person to think he was better than everybody else, but he did prefer the least amount of socializing as possible. Which was exactly the opposite of what he was going to get in first class, which he knew Snoke knew.

That also meant that this was definitely some sort of compensation on his boss’ behalf for the shit he had pulled in Australia. Some bizarre form of teaching him a lesson about crossing him or doing something he didn’t like.

It was understandable of course, and he knew that he probably deserved that, but it didn’t make it any less annoying and inconvenient. Especially considering the fact that it was a time sensitive mission that he was jumping into headfirst just two days after being assigned it, in a country he had not yet visited of all places.

Sometimes he didn’t understand the lengths Snoke would go to teach him a lesson, but with just two minutes left before they shut boarding Kylo was able to get in due to “resolved” issues.

As he moved to the back of the plane and sat down in his seat he noticed that there was already a woman sitting there, smiling in wait for him to sit down. He nodded uncomfortably before squeezing past her and sitting beside the window, which was a terrible idea considering how long his legs were. They just barely fit in the tiny seats and he felt the irritation prickle across his skin.

Now all he had to do was close his eyes and try to fall asleep. But he found he was unable to.

His thoughts were swirling with what he would do if he ever ended up meeting her…. _Rey,_ along the journey. It was bound to happen at some point, them both following the same paper trail. Even if he would probably find the first clue with his additional information she would catch at some point.

She had done it back then too. She was never farther behind him, and a few times it even seemed like she was miles in front of him. Would she be happy to see him? Would she be angry?

Would she hate him?

Would he hate her?

It was all very complex. Their relationship as well. He hadn’t know much about her, and yet he had felt as if he had known her his entire life. Like she knew every move he was going to make and every thought he was thinking. Like her soul was in tune with his.

But it wasn’t like that at all. He had misunderstood her. That had been his mistake... believing that she had felt that too in the first place. And Kylo was worried that she would be disappointed upon meeting him again. He had changed, gotten more bitter – he could at least admit that to himself. Last time he had seen her she was headstrong and stubborn. It wouldn’t be a good mix.

Which is why they could never work together. They were like fire and ice. Two people who were diametrically opposed.

It didn’t make any of it easier.

There was bad blood between the two of them and even if they were working side by side on this mission it wouldn’t matter. It would never work.. Or at least that’s how he felt now… before he could see her. Because deep down he was sure he would change his mind.

Because a part of him always moved towards her. Finally, his own mind tired itself out after spinning in circles for hours.

And when the plane finally touched down onto the tarmac in Dakar he was surprised of the amount of time that had passed to say the least.

Kylo grabbed transportation into the city straight to his hotel, where he immediately crashed on the bed as soon as he saw it. He was wary of the fact that he was supposed to get to work exploring the two locations of interest as soon as he got there but he couldn’t bring himself to care. Snoke wouldn’t be happy at all if he didn’t receive some sort of report on the status of the situation by nightfall but then again….

Apparently, he had a month before she left Resistance Treasures to start hunting for clues anyways. In his opinion, he had all the time in the world and considering he hadn’t slept for four nights in a row it felt deserved.

Which left him to fall into a dark endless slumber that felt as troubled as his soul.


	8. Voyager

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! Late update, but this chapter took me so long because it's filler in terms of getting Ben and Rey together but not filler in terms of the hunt itself. Either way I hope you enjoy and are slightly intrigued. Also, I do in fact know French due to studying it for MANY years. But, when we branch out to other countries I want to get stuff right so if any of you happen to notice any misspelling or nonsensical sentences please point them out to me!

Kylo awoke to the blaring alarm of his ringtone. He groaned, not moving from his position but choosing to smack his hand around the bed to find his phone. When he finally got a grip on it, he rolled over onto his back, feeling a soreness in his neck from the weird sleeping position.

He hadn’t even changed out of his clothes from the previous night. Just how tired had he been?

He pressed the accept call button and was about to lift up the phone to his ear when he heard the cold hiss loud and clear.

“Have you discovered anything yet.”

He cleared his throat under his breath, trying not to sound like he had just woken up.

“Not yet sir.”

“Ah, so you were asleep.”

Fuck. How had he known?

“I can tell Ren. I know everything.”

Kylo hated when he did that. Almost read his mind. It was like nothing was sacred.

“Sorry sir.”

He wasn’t even going to try and make an excuse. That would end worse than him just admitting his faults.

“Alright. But know I don’t employ slackers. If you want to burn Resistance Treasures down to the ground, you need to cooperate. _Completely._ ”

“Understood sir.”

He rubbed his eyes, trying to make himself more alert. His vision blurred slightly before clearing and the ceiling came into view.

“I want a report of everything you find by the end of the week. Do not disappoint me Ren.”

The call cut and Kylo rolled over again, trying to get just a few more precious minutes of sleep. He was of no use half dead to the world.

His wake-up alarm sliced harshly into the serenity and he nearly pitched his phone across the room and straight at the wall. He dug a fist into the mattress trying to stop himself from flying into a fit of rage. Was he not allowed to catch a break?

He got up slowly, pushing off of the bed with enough force that he was sure the frame was going to break as it creaked under the pressure.

Kylo padded over to the washroom, tossing off his bomber jacket and cross shoulder holsters on the bed. He shrugged off the black shirt underneath before unwrapping the bandages along his arm.

The new stitches were holding up, and the area didn’t look infected which was good. Now all he needed to do was make sure that they didn’t get infected during his stay because he was definitely _not_ doing this mission with a useless arm.

The sounds coming from the outside then drew him to the window. The city below was full to the brim with civilians walking from place to place, and the humid air filled his senses. Surprisingly, he hadn’t noticed the window had been open all night and hadn’t been disturbed by the bustling in the night, something that usually would have kept him up.

He inhaled deeply, leaning slightly out of the opening in the wall and looking down to the street right below. The covered street stalls rippled as a slight breeze passed them and the sand kicked off, grains scattering everywhere.

Of all places, Snoke had to send him right back to another location filled with sand.

But there was a certain charm to it. He could get behind that.

His eyes started to droop again. Some waking up was in order. A shower would probably help with that.

………….

A week.

It had taken Kylo an entire week to find someone who was willing to take him to Somone. And it was only about an hour’s drive away, which annoyed him even more.

Mainly because it seemed like nobody really knew a good taxi company and they only really dealt with bus tours. He couldn’t blame them; he was a tourist looking to travel domestically without going on a tourist bus, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to drive himself.

Kylo had driven in a lot of countries, but he had no idea how to rent a car or drive around this one. After getting the concierge to check with a friend – of a friend – of a friend he was finally able to procure a driver for his trip.

He could at least give thanks to the fact that he knew exactly where he was going because of his boss. Snoke sent him the coordinates of the location and it had taken him an approximately five second search to find out where it was as he marked it on a map. He was planning on getting a ride down to center of Somone and then walking the rest of the way.

It was better if nobody knew where he was going. The questions were something he wasn’t prepared for. That – and adding to his list. He hadn’t done that for a while, he hoped he wouldn’t have to today.

But then again, something always seemed to go wrong where Kylo was involved. It was just how his life worked - so he was pretty used to it by now.

As the beat-up car trundled along the unpaved roads he got closer and closer to his destination. And farther and farther away from normalcy. He could tell this mission was going to change his life in ways he had never even considered.

Such was the impact of finding such a valuable treasure.

Kylo wasn’t _not famous._ He had done a few segments on Snoke’s network for the people, and gotten generally good reviews on it. His name was credited on many big finds even if it usually appeared at the bottom of the article - after the name of his boss and the company had been exploited a bit.

So he would probably just get more recognition when this was all over. Which wasn’t good for the job considering people might recognize him when he went on trips but it would be… different.

That wasn’t the only reason he felt everything was going to change though. Kylo could feel the pull. The call to the treasure, and with a promise of more than just something different. Something _important_ was bound to happen, and he couldn’t help the feeling that it had something to do with Rey.

It made him uneasy, yet excited. Was it even possible to feel both at the same time? He didn’t know. Odd occurrences seemed to follow her wherever she went.

The car came to an abrupt stop and Kylo fell forward in his seat, using the driver’s headrest to brace himself.

“What was that?”

“Nous sommes arrivés monsieur. “

Kylo used the only French word he knew in response, “Merci” and then gave the man some bills before pushing open the car door.

If only he had been brought up in Canada instead of America maybe he would know some French instead of Spanish.

He was out on the busy streets, a group of goats passing just in front of him. He was not going to pretend he understood why so many were out on an evidently main road, but it was an interesting sight to behold.

He crossed to the dirt path of the sidewalk, nodding in uncomfortable acknowledgement to the fruit and vegetable vendors who were staring at him.

Should he buy some of their produce? It was so unsettling he considered the notion just to maybe get them to stop looking at him like that. Kylo moved closer to the stalls, about to go up to one and buy an orange before he decided not to.

They seemed to be glaring at him now, so maybe it was wise to forego the entire thing and just get on with it. He pulled the map out of his jacket pocket following the trail he made in red sharpie with his eyes.

It shouldn’t be too long of a walk from where he was to his destination. Around 45 minutes at most.

Kylo began to make the long trek to a little spot on the coast.

The breeze started to pick up as he neared the ocean. The salty smell of brine tainting the air with a sort of freshness. His hair became slightly damp with it - combined with the humid nature of the atmosphere.

And the landscape changed from one of a vibrant town to grassy, rolling plains, with houses getting farther and fewer between. It definitely had a tropical feel.

The land began to taper off to an inlet, and he took his time reaching the end where he knew the small hut would be located. It grew larger and larger as he approached. Taking his time as the sun turned golden and spread its fading light across the sky.

It was peaceful out here. Kylo had always liked beaches and tropical places. It reminded him of the vacations he used to take sometimes with his father. Those were fond memories that he kept close to his heart… the few that remained at least.

The village of his grandfather’s childhood which had been around twenty minutes’ walk was nowhere in sight. Not even in the distance. He could imagine that due to the flat landscape it had once easily been seen.

He got closer to the hut. It was far out on the inlet just placed on the last piece of grass before the land turned to beach. And then just beyond that, a few steps away was the ocean. The waves broke against the soft grain and he resisted going there just to walk along the shore. Maybe even dip his feet in it for a little bit.

And then there he was. His grandfather’s ancestral home. It was just so… different from what he had expected.

He pushed open the wooden door, flimsy beneath his touch. The grass squelched beneath his combat boots.

As soon as Kylo stepped in the earthy scent overpowered him. And along with that the mud on the floor. The layout was quite simple with almost no decoration and he moved past the kitchen into one of the rooms. There was a rotting wooden bedframe pushed up against the wall which he assumed used to be a bed.

Other than that the place looked cleaned out.

He ducked into the room beside it and found another bed. Smaller and a work desk in the corner. A few metal parts were scattered on the ground.

This was definitely his grandfather’s room.

Kylo went to look at the desk. The same symbols he had seen so many times were scratched into the wood. And on the walls. And when he examined the metal parts they were there too.

It was obsessive.

The room darkened as the sun went down and he dropped to his knees, combing through the mud that was considered the ground, ignoring the wet feeling of the substance clinging to his pants. There had to be something. He didn’t even know what he was looking for honestly.

But he knew he would feel it when he found it.

He wasn’t feeling anything.

There was no sign of anything that could be useful, and there were no trees in sight to bury things in their hollows. It was all just grass and plains. It was almost pitch black outside now and he could feel the chill straight into his bones.

There was still a long walk back.

He wasn’t going to give up that easily. He took a lighter out of his pocket, breaking a large stick off the wall and lighting it.

Immediately, it went up in flames, the heat from the sun having dried it out. He needed to work fast before it burnt out and singed his hand.

He moved towards the bed using the makeshift torch to see under it. Then he started digging again. He cleared the area looking, searching. His grandfather has spent lots of time down there hiding. If there was anything here it would be there.

His hand found something rusted. He pulled at it, wiping it on his pant with a grimace before inspecting it. A rusted knife.

“Shit!”

The torch had reached its end and done exactly what he had been trying to avoid – burnt him. Kylo pitched the flaming torch at the wall in an attempt to get it away from him.

Fuck, now he was going to have to get some burn cream.

A burning smell flooded his senses. Extra fuck. The hut was on fire.

He looked over to where he had thrown the torch, and saw a large section of the wall already up in flames. It spread quickly blazing up to the roof and he scrambled to his feet.

He was so not dying in a burning hut.

It was at that exact moment the flood of water came in and Kylo suddenly understood why the floor was so dreadfully muddy. The tide had come in, and each day the sun dried the place out.

The water was already up to his knees and he could only imagine how long he had to swim out of the place before he was struck down by some burning logs. He waded through the water as the fire made more walls in the house burst into flames.

The water continued rising, now up to his waist and he decided that it would just be better to swim the length of it. He splashed forward into the water diving down into it as he heard the split of wood above him.

He came up for air just a little bit in front and saw a large, half burning log in the place he had once been.

His hand continued to burn and the arm with the stitches in it protested. Thank goodness he barely ever registered the pain of fractures otherwise he would have to deal with those too. And there was definitely a swollen ankle in his future when he got back to the hotel.

Kylo swam out of the house faster, just getting out the door as he heard more splitting and the entire roof caved in.

He flipped to treading water just to see the damage. The burning logs were soaking up the water and the fire was razing anything that wasn’t yet submerged.

Great. Now he had burnt down his ancestral home.

Even if there had been something in there to find it was either completely damp or turned to ash. There was certainly no winning with that one.

He lay on his back, using a backstroke to continue to the part of the grass where the water stopped before flipping over, taking a huge slap of mud to the stomach. This was so fucking disgusting.

He clamoured out of the water trying to scrape the mud off of anywhere it was plastered to him, using the grass as a carpet to toss all of it. His hands were a little bit cleaner from the water and he crouched down at its edge to wash them a little bit better.

How was he supposed to get home now? It was dark, save for the pale moonlight and he doubted anybody would take a man soaked to the bone and muddy as hell back to Dakar. It had been hell finding a transport the other way round. Which he realized now was truly stupid of him. He hadn’t thought that through at all.

But they would take a man with money right? He patted at his pockets for some bills, feeling nothing and then checking one of the holsters on his belt. Inside was some money. Very damp, half disintegrated money.

Yeah. There was probably no way he was getting back tonight.

With just his wits about him he followed the path the moon allowed him on as he followed the map back into town.

The walk back was even worse this time, his clothes were heavy and he smelled like he had taken a bath in a swamp. Along with that, his hair was stuck to his face in a manner he could only describe as horrifying and he was very happy that Rey wasn’t there to see him like this.

As if she ever would see him like this.

They wouldn’t ever see each other again. Well not unless they crossed paths somehow. Which he prayed they wouldn’t. Because if he saw her he would do everything in his power to stop her from getting ahead. Even if that meant… using force.

He didn’t want to. He didn’t want it to come to that. But Resistance Treasures needed to burn. And no matter how Kylo felt about her he would do what he had to.

The thought itself disgusted him as he imagined his arms around her neck like they had been around that man in Australia. She was small, and not fragile by any means – considering she had attacked him the first time they met. But hurting her seemed like too much.

But it shouldn’t be. It couldn’t be.

Snoke wouldn’t hesitate. And he was just like his master, so he wouldn’t either.

He could feel a pulsing in his ankle with all the unnecessary weight he put on it during the day. If he didn’t bind it soon he was looking at two weeks of no mobility and he didn’t have that kind of time. He was already looking at one at most for whatever he had done today.

The minimal lighting of the town finally came into view, and he found himself dragging his feet to get back there. The atmosphere of the place had changed completely, the people who were still outside moving like silent figures of the night.

He wanted to get out of there and back to the hotel as soon as possible, but if he had to stay up all night sitting in some alcove somewhere he would. Then suddenly, as if destiny had sent it to him, came the same car that had dropped him off earlier in the day.

And Kylo - in sheer desperation - jumped straight into the road as it was careening towards him. He held his hands out and let the lights blind him as he waited for either the inevitable impact or halt of the car.

The car screeched to a stop and he saw a familiar head poke out of the window.

“Monsieur! Que se passe-t-il?”

He racked his brains, trying to dredge up any semblance of French possible. Damn he should have learnt some on the plane ride.

He finally got it, mashing words together into a question – it definitely wasn’t supposed to come out that way.

“J’ai – um – J’ai besoin de rentrer Dakar?”

The man looked at him as if he was an idiot before speaking in broken English, “Come into car”

Kylo smiled at him. At least he was getting a ride home. He dragged himself into the car, falling like dead weight into the backseat and slumping across the row.

The driver prattled on in the seat in front of him as the car lurched forward. “Pourquoi es-tu ici si tard? Vous avez de la chance que j’ai décidé de rester jusqu’à tard pour faire du travail”

But Kylo didn’t even try to interpret what the man was saying. He was way too tired.

………….

The fucking swollen ankle had ended up costing him three weeks, which meant now he was a month into his mission and apparently, Rey had jetted off to fucking Ireland last week and now she was in France. Where she had been for the last few days.

Which was just _perfect._

Because that meant that after she was done with whatever she was doing there if she found something there then _he_ would be behind.

He couldn’t fucking get behind!

The only solace in the entire thing was the fact that his report to Snoke after what had happened at his grandfather’s old house (leaving out the fact that he burnt the place down) had awarded him with a report by the end of this week instead of the previous one.

If he didn’t find anything at Lake Retba he didn’t know what he was going to do with himself. He would have to find some other lead or go to France too. Hopefully she found nothing too.

Kylo was in a hotel near Lake Retba. This time he was staying there for 3 days to make sure he scoured the place up and down before he left. He refused to miss a clue.

He had only just arrived, but the stellar view of the pink lake had shocked him. Honestly? He hadn’t expected it to actually be pink. But it was rather beautiful.

Kylo wanted to get to work as soon as possible so he had tossed the bags around as soon as he entered the hotel room and was on his way down to the lake now.

The sun was beating down even more heavily and he started to take to the coastline, finding serenity in the place his grandfather had once described as his favourite spot.

It was easy to see why. The views were gorgeous and there was something centering about the place. If he was here every time he got mad he might not have to scratch at his wounds to maintain control.

Maybe he would even be happy.

Or at least as happy as he could possibly be.

There were no trees surrounding the lake, which make his task somewhat easier. But he wasn’t sure where the symbols could be if not carved into one. As sand didn’t make quite the landscape for retaining information you _wanted_ people to find.

He was generally assuming the symbols would be what pointed him in the right direction. Mainly due to the fact that they were all over the boy’s room, diaries, and victims. It was safe to say that some sort of marking was Vader’s “brand”.

He had divided the shoreline into three parts, one per each day.

It took all day of scouring one part back and forth for him to decide that it was a pretty hopeless task. But tomorrow would have to be better, right?

…….

Tomorrow was not better. And neither was the day after that.

The lake had proven clueless, and although it was pretty - Kylo was ready to curse out its existence to the heavens.

The mission was a whole fucking mess. His only options were to go to France and hope he didn’t bump into Rey or try to find anything else. He knew it was somewhat hopeless, he hadn’t felt the _pull_ from the lake anyways. It seemed just as it was. A damn lake.

As he sat down for the night he rested his feet up on the table (yes there was more than a bed in this room) and pulled out a small leather bound notebook.

He hadn’t used it in a while, but it was still worn as ever. And already he could feel the slight dread about the contents.

But it was now or never, and Kylo had decided it was time. He was already feeling upset enough about the fruitlessness of his past month, so what was some more regret and sadness on top of that?

It would ever be enough for him. He promised himself that he would continue doing this until the job was done, so continue he would.

He opened the book and flipped through a few of the covered pages, filled with his calligraphy practice…. And tally marks.

Kylo was keeping tally marks for all the people he had hurt along the way in the job. It was a way to keep himself accountable for his sins. He hadn’t added the men from Australia. It seemed like a good time.

Why he couldn’t be better? He was never _good_ enough.

Kylo had too much darkness in him. And now his job facilitated it too.

His hand shook as he created the tally marks, in swooping, elegant strokes. The burns were beginning to heal, but there might be some scarring. He didn’t mind. Just another to add to the collection. 

His phone buzzed on the table beside him, and blinking on the screen was a text that shouldn’t have made him as giddy as it did. This was amazing news.

And suddenly, Kylo had a very good _bad_ idea.


	9. Daydream

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone!
> 
> We're back with Rey and things are starting to heat up closer to their meeting. This story is honestly really hard to write considering how many potential plot holes there are, I rewrote backstory pieces three times in the process of writing this chapter lol. All the same we're getting closer to Ben and Rey finally meeting and the eventual team up.  
> Let me know what you think, I appreciate your comments!

Rey twirled once. Then twice. The fabric swirled with her as she did so too, and she could swear that it sparkled in the sun in an almost angelic way. It literally hurt her eyes with how gorgeously sparkly it was.

She ran her hands down the sides of the dress, feeling how snugly it fit, like it was a second skin. Made for her especially. She looked down to see sheer sleeves and a plunging neckline lined with butterflies of glass, which refracted the light in a way that made them shine like they held the whole rainbow in them. The skirt; a luxurious white gossamer that felt somewhat silky to the touch.

It extended down to the ground which was covered in bright green moss and lichen, and all of a sudden Rey realized she was standing in a forest.

A bright forest with trees that didn’t extend too far above her and were aplenty but still sparse enough that it allowed the sun to come through. And the whole thing in a way that all but said fairy-tale.

She even felt beautiful.

Rey had no idea where she was or why she was there, but it didn’t matter. Because there was a parting between the trees that screamed of being a pathway. To where didn’t matter either – there was just the inexplicable feeling to follow.

So she went through, fingers reaching out to run her hands along the tree trunks as she passed, feeling only softness between the digits.

She continued through the forest as the underbrush got denser and denser, and the path narrower and narrower. The sunlight began to fade away too and the forest became plunged into darkness.

Everything turned a rich dark green while mist started to creep just above the forest floor. It was thick and pale, and made the bottom of her dress start to feel heavier as it dampened. Which made her move slower.

But she wanted – no _needed_ – to go faster. Rey had to find what was at the end of the path. Be it curiosity or something else, she could feel the strings pulling at her heart drawing more and more taut with every step.

It crushed her chest. Pulling and tugging until she felt like gasping for air as the trees got impossibly dense. Claustrophobia was almost upon her and she took to shuffling sideways between the trunks, narrowly avoiding the boughs hitting her square in the face a few times. Things darkened to an impossible black to the point where she couldn’t see.

That was when she relied on the painful tugging on her heart, growing ever stronger until she felt like she was being stabbed. It pointed her in the right direction and Rey couldn’t stop now – she couldn’t stop until she was there.

Rey would continue to go through the trees to where she needed to. It could stop her heart for all she cared.

She couldn’t believe she was doing this. All of it. God, she was going to kill herself, it really felt like death was upon her. So close she would take one step further and touch it.

That was when it all fell away. The trees, the mist…. All of it.

And Rey found herself standing in a clearing, a sparkling river just a few metres away with a gold pavilion in front of it.

Standing in that gold pavilion with their back towards her… well Rey would be able to recognize that hair from anywhere. As soft and perfectly curled as the first day she had met him.

Was it creepy that she knew him from the back of his head? They had only really met once but it had left such an impact on her that she continued to remember the little things. Like when she had first seen him in the cave. Back turned towards her in the same way.

She couldn’t help staring.

Was it really him in front of her? It could be some other extra tall, massively built man with perfect hair. The odds were low, but who knew? She felt a little bit anxious truthfully, and found herself moving closer. But did she really want to do that?

Because if it turned out it wasn’t him this would be very awkward. And if it was him it would be just as awkward. She didn’t really wanna feel the telltale way her heart would drop if it wasn’t him again. Like it had in Ireland. She had been thoroughly disappointed for _no good reason_.

That was such a lie. Rey never tried to lie with herself. She knew how her heart felt about him… and also how her head felt about him. And it was her heart that was the traitor in the whole situation. She could feel her cheeks colour as she convinced herself to be angry.

She certainly didn’t want to see a condescending asshole anyways. He was borderline evil and completely unappreciative of everything his parents had done for him. How could her heart be feeling anything for someone like that? For someone who had given up what she so gladly would have accepted a million times over.

At least he had a family. He was an ungrateful bastard and if it was him she was really going to let him know it. It was only too bad she didn’t know it from the start when she had seen him. It would have saved her a lot of trouble.

And yet her ever traitorous heart leapt at the idea of Ben goddamn Solo. She was a fucking disgrace. Hot and cold all over a guy. Now she was just disappointed in herself. Rey was better than this! She was Rey Niima and didn’t let herself get broken-hearted over a simple-

He turned around. A heart stopping smile on his face.

“Rey.” He said her name softly, and with a certain wonder behind it.

Fuck she was going to have a heart attack. Rey was going to die right here on the spot and her cause of death would be stupid fucking Ben Solo’s smile.

And why was he looking at her like that? Like she was his entire universe personified in one person. She could have _thrown_ herself at him.

But Rey had to restrain herself. She was a perfectly civilized human being and-

He moved towards her, close enough that she was flush against his chest and brought her into an embrace. One arm cradling head so she could hear his heartbeat pulsing underneath the suit jacket, the other wrapped around her waist. Her arms slipped around him under his arms to clasp at his shoulders.

Suit jacket? Oh shit he was wearing a tux.

Suddenly, it was unbearably hot. The warmth radiating off of him in waves was just too much, and Rey tried to break away. But his strength wouldn’t let her. Instead she felt him move back slightly, turning her head so she was now facing his chest head on. And then he bent until his mouth was right below her ear, hot breath fanning the side of her neck, and she resisted the urge to shiver.

No, Rey would not give him the benefit of knowing he had an effect on her.

“You know Rey… “ and goodness the way her name rolled off his lips was positively _sinful_. “I think you…” she felt the hand of the arm wrapped around her waist move up as it reached up her back, before he trailed a finger down her spine.

Rey couldn’t have resembled a wooden plank more. She was standing as stiffly and as frozen as one. And of course her dress had to be fucking backless. Because that just made this all even worse. Someone was definitely punishing her for something.

He laid a soft kiss on her neck, just below her earlobe, and she found her fingers carding through his hair faster than she could even blink.

Damn, it was just as a soft as she had always imagined, maybe even more so. She felt him move again, his mouth back at her ear. “Have something that belongs to me.” And suddenly she was impossibly close.

His hand, now stroking at the base of her spine left the spot, and she felt the loss of the heat from it like as if she had placed an ice cube there.

And then he moved back more until she was loosely pressed against him and looked up into his face. Seeing only pools of amber filled with another kind of heat that made her a little nervous. Did he have to be so gorgeous? She could still remember how attractive he had been when she had seen him the first time.

She had been at a loss for words when she had realized her enemy was painfully beautiful. And it just made her job a little harder.

He lifted something between them – a rose – and Rose slipped one hand out from under his arm to take it from him. Their hands touching momentarily. Her heart was _racing._ She felt like a fucking teenager. It was embarrassing as hell.

She looked down at the rose to see that it was no longer a crimson red flower. No. Now it was a gemstone. _The gemstone._

The fucking gemstone that had started it all. What the hell was it doing here? And why did he have it?

She looked up again. What the hell? How was he standing so far away from her now? She hadn’t even noticed that he had disentangled himself from her. Had he ever even been holding her?

Rey looked around, suddenly fearful. She was back in that godawful cave that had taken jumping into an underground lake to get in. With the weird wall that looked almost like a mirror, but was completely clouded over. The Mirror Cave, the locals had called it.

She had nightmares thinking about this place. It was a place that was _wrong. Filled with darkness._ She drew her arms around herself to wrap around, feeling the chilly nature of the cave.

Instead of feeling the hard glass of the butterflies or even the silky texture of the gossamer Rey was met with her jean jacket. She looked down, noticing that she was now dressed in her usual white leggings and wrap top with her favourite blue jean jacket on top.

And Ben? Well Ben was back in his all black ensemble, complete with the holsters and everything. Just as charming and dangerous looking as she remembered. But decidedly more solemn, or like he was holding back. His face betrayed no emotions, or at least tried to.

Rey looked back at her hand, now freezing with the cold from the gemstone.

Wait.

She had it. This time she had it.

The tables had been turned. Now Rey had gotten to it. He hadn’t gotten to it first. She had _won?_

Against him?

This is exactly what she wanted. This was everything she had wanted out of the moment. She was getting a chance to re-do it finally. After two years of beating herself up over this. Now she had the gemstone.

He seemed to realize what she was thinking as he took one step closer, and Rey took one step back. He was NOT taking it from her again. She wasn’t going to be a disgrace the second time. She would prove herself to the family he had tossed away. Rey couldn’t help the sneer that came on her face.

“It’s mine now Ben. You can’t have it.” She felt a sort of furious excitement come out of her. “Can’t you see that I’ve won? You’ll never win again. Any of it.” She was practically yelling at him at this point. Fuck Ben Solo, this was her win.

All he did was step forward again, a sort of smirk on his face as he spoke lowly. “You know I can take whatever I want.”

She recoiled slightly, breath hitching. He could, couldn’t he? Her shoulders slumped in slight dejection.

But she wouldn’t let him. Not this time.

And then he moved quickly, and took her up in his arms and kissed her.

Rey awoke with a start, feeling the blush upon her cheeks. The absolutely charged energy of the air and its heat. Her hair was matted to her forehead with sweat, and she could feel the ghost of his lips on hers as she reached up to touch them.

It had felt so _real._ But it couldn’t have been. Because she had never gotten the gemstone at all, and he definitely hadn’t kissed her. She would have remembered such a moment.

No, all Rey remembered from when they had truly been in the cave all those years ago was how the walls had come crumbling down soon after carrying the threat of imminent death with them.

She tossed off the covers and padded over to the window, thankful for somewhat of a breeze as she looked over into the street of the French village of Yvoire and inhaled the scent of fresh roses from the planter in front of her.

_Roses._

……………..

She felt like kicking the damn walls of every building she saw. It had been a couple of days since she had arrived in Yvoire and everything was all wrong. Ever since that stupid dream Rey had been off her game.

She had gotten up that day and gone to The Garden of Five Senses, just as a young Darth Vader had in the past. He had documented within the diary entry that it was serene and his favourite location to start anew.

That had to mean something right?

Well then why was there nothing here?

Rey assumed since he was obviously obsessed with marking everything in the vicinity with those ominous symbols he would at least have done it here too. Including bodies. It made her shudder even thinking about those horrid photos even now.

The crazy bastard had scratched those symbols everywhere while in France too since all the diary entries about this location were full of them. Those extra diary entries from Ireland had just reiterated the fact.

The police report had been no help at all. Just made everything fifteen times creepier now that she knew Vader had a bunch of cultist fanboys clinging onto his every word.

She had practically made a fool out of herself every day she went back there, and the few guides standing around had started giving her glances as if _she was the crazy one._ Apparently, nobody visited the Garden multiple days in a row just to run around frantically searching for who knows what.

She had checked under stone benches, all along the walls….in the bathrooms in the building. She had even checked in the bloody fountains. Yes. _In the fountains._

That had made for quite the conversation with the groundskeepers about respecting the history of the town, and if she did it again she wouldn’t be allowed back.

And on top of her scrambling around like a headless chicken, searching in the most obscene and odd places she had gone back so many times for two reasons. The first being to look over and over again and see if she had missed anything in her first rounds.

The second was that bloody dream.

It distracted her so much while she was checking she often got lost in remembering it. Which then resulted in her walking around with the silliest smile on her face looking off into the distance before she snapped back to reality, and had to go back and re check what she had just checked.

She had also realized that in her daydreams she had forgotten to check multiple areas of the garden which meant she had to go back the next day. And the next. And the next. It was an endless repeating cycle of nonsense all over a dream where she was in a pretty dress and Ben Solo kissed her.

It was today, after her last check through that she had been told formally, by the groundskeeper that she shouldn’t come back. She was “disturbing the peace of the garden” and had almost “destroyed property on numerous occasions.

It pissed her off. Rey was a professional, she always had been. So why was she going about her job like an amateur?

Because of his stupid fucking smile that’s why.

So not only had he broken her heart by being a major asshole, caused her to feel like a constant failure since then, betrayed his family and by an extension her family – now he had also messed up how she did her job.

That infuriating man never failed to mess things up for her.

If she ever came across him during this quest she would slap him.

So that brought Rey to now. Wandering through the gorgeous little medieval town, but finding herself unable to thoroughly relish in its beauty.

Because everything had been soured by everything that was going on.

She could only assume at this point that there was nothing there for her to find in the first place, if scouring every inch of it for hours had meant anything.

And worst of all. It just didn’t feel like the right place. Rey didn’t know how, but she just _knew._

Which either meant that she would find the “right place” in the future or she was looking for the wrong thing. And Rey didn’t have time to look for the wrong thing.

But this entire mission was all just one big toss of luck that would either end up in failing the only family that had truly made her feel wanted or saving them.

Rey didn’t want to lose. She was desperate to win, horribly desperate – she didn’t know how she would be able to live with herself by disappointing them again like she had when she was initially pitted against Ben.

But it was such a real possibility, and it loomed over her like a dark cloud.

Regardless of that fact, she trusted herself. Rey had never had the choice to do anything but trust only in herself. Which was how she somewhat knew that if something in her was telling her this wasn’t the place, it simply couldn’t be the place.

Her job was a difficult one indeed. It was a good thing she loved it as much as she did.

The sky was reigning a bright blue overhead and the narrow streets with flowers looped along the buildings brought an odd sense of comfort. It was like stepping into a piece of history, which just held a certain magnificence to it.

It was by looking up at the sky and taking a stroll that she finally found herself calmer. And in that calmness…

She felt her phone buzz in her pocket.

_FRIENDLYFINN:_

_“Peanut! Did you find anything this time?”_

_REY:_

_“Nope.”_

She did like her colleagues, but it felt like they were blowing up her phone constantly to ask her what was going on. It got just a little bit tiring.

_FIGHTERPILOTDAM:_

“ _Well there goes our lead then._

_Got any ideas on what to do next captain?”_

_REY:_

_“Not a damn clue.”_

She put her phone away after that. Not really wanting to talk about her lack of clue finding. The buzzing eventually stopped and she was able to continue on her walk in peace.

Another buzz.

Oh for fuck’s sake. They had just stopped. What could they want now?

She pulled the phone out again and saw the numerous group chat messages debating next steps, and among them. Something else?

_UNKNOWN NUMBER:_

“ _Meet me in Casablanca at La Sqala in two days at 8 PM._

_I have a proposal for you._

_And some information that I think will help you on your mission.”_

_REY:_

_“Who is this?”_

The response was almost instantaneous, as if they had been lying in wait.

_UNKNOWN NUMBER:_

“ _Come meet me and find out.”_

She switched chats.

_FIGHTERPILOTDAM:_

“ _She’s gone and muted us again hasn’t she.”_

_REY:_

_“Guys can you book me a flight to Casablanca for tomorrow?_

_Oh, and a hotel. ”_

_FRIENDLYFINN:_

_“What the hell? Casablanca?”_

_REY:_

_“I have a meeting to attend to.”_

_FIGHTERPILOTDAM:_

“ _On it._

_Are you going to tell us why exactly?”_

_REY:_

_“I don’t know._

_But it’s something to go off of.”_

_FIGHTERPILOTDAM:_

“ _Are we allowed to know what something is?”_

_REY:_

_“Just a hunch._

_Got a tip from an unknown number.”_

_FRIENDLYFINN:_

_“That is so shady._

_What did it say??_

_What did it want??_

_You know as members of your team you should be telling us this stuff right?_

_And also you can’t just go off of the words of some creepy unknown number stalker.”_

Rey rolled her eyes. She so preferred working alone. A lead was a lead, simple as that.

_FRIENDLYFINN:_

_“Rey?_

_Why isn’t she answering?”_

_FIGHTERPILOTDAM:_

“ _Booked and sending over to you now._

_I don’t know why we do everything you ask._

_Ugh you’re so bad at teamwork.”_

She was indeed.


	10. Wrong Timing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everybody!
> 
> Remember me? Sorry its been almost two weeks, which I promised would never happen. I actually put aside my exams tomorrow to sit down and write this lest it get too out of hand. To make up for almost two weeks worth of absence i'm posting another one tomorrow or Saturday so stay tuned! I could never leave us too long on this cliffhanger when they're finally about to meet!
> 
> As always, reviews and comments are welcome!

Kylo was late. _Very late._

He was practically running through the streets of Casablanca at this point, just narrowly missing knocking over merchants and various fruit carts. He didn’t even have time to stop and admire the view at all, which was a shame because it really was a beautiful city.

He was on his way through the Old Medina of Casablanca, the last vestige of pre twentieth century Casablanca, and the famed old quarter of the city. Having just passed the Synagogue Rabbi Ettedgui he knew he was getting close. Kylo just had to make it closer to the waterfront.

He could practically hear the sound of the gulls chirping and the fresh smell of Atlantic on the tip of the breeze. It was refreshing and cool in the blazing heat that seemed to lessen as the sun cast a warm golden glow over the city. It also drove him to run even faster.

He was nervous as hell, sweating from the running and the sheer anxiety of meeting her again. He hoped she was not as stunning as she had been the first time he met her. If he had tricked himself of her beauty he could at least compose himself enough with the feeling of disappointment. Maybe then he would be able to talk to her without acting like a damn idiot.

He had run through the conversation around fifty times and each time he had come off either sounding like a massive asshole player, which seemed like a commonality every time he saw her, or a complete loser. He was definitely the latter.

Kylo was by no means a small man, he knew his hurried pace within the narrow streets, feet slamming on the cobblestones was bound to backfire at some point. He just truly wasn’t expecting it when it did.

That was when he ended up full on _tackling_ a kid. The child fell to the ground in front of him as he ground to a halt, feeling the stares of the people around him.

He had half a mind to step around the child and continue on, _anything_ to get to La Sqala. But unfortunately, he did have some semblance of a conscience. Which was why he extended his hand down to the child in an effort to lend him a helping hand up, expressing multiple apologies about his behaviour.

The child simply blinked and took his hand, and he pulled him up.

The sounds of the people shuffling about resumed and the slight ringing of a bell could be heard through the streets. They simply stood there looking at each other. Was he supposed to just get on with it and move past him?

The child stood in front of him, feet firmly planted on the ground as if he had no intent to move. That was the first indicator of confusion for him, because honestly this was kind of awkward and he had a very important dinner date to get to.

Perhaps the most important dinner date of his life. He pulled out his phone, checking the time quickly before shutting it off. _8:15._ A whole fifteen fucking minutes late and if he got any later he wasn’t sure she would stay.

He would be surprised if she was still there when he got there all things considering. There was no way Rey would stick around for an unknown number who had messaged her and dragged her out to Morocco with no explanation.

Hell, she might not have even bothered coming. But he couldn’t take the chance that she wouldn’t, because he believed somewhere in her heart she must _know_ that it was really him who had texted her.

Shit, the kid was still in front of him. He was so not putting up with this anymore. Kylo shifted, about to move to the side to get past when suddenly the kid practically jumped on him. He felt the arms around his torso and lifted his own in the air to look down at what was happening. _Why the hell was the kid hugging him?_

It only lasted a few seconds and during that time he debated whether it would be a good idea to hug him back or not. The kid extricated himself from Kylo’s body and moved past him himself. He didn’t even want to know what that was all about, but couldn’t help himself from turning around and gaping at the child.

It was at that exact moment he saw the tucking of what suspiciously looked like a wallet into the waistband of the child’s shorts, and that’s when he knew he was fucked.

Kylo looked around to see if anybody had seen it too, if they would make a remark, but they stayed engaged in their own affairs. Completely oblivious to the little pickpocket that had just made off with his wallet. Looked like he was going to have to do it himself.

“Hey!” he yelled after the kid. The child glanced back wide eyed before breaking out into a sprint, and shit this was going to be a whole chase wasn’t it?

As the kid took off he contemplated his choices. Either follow and take back the wallet that he was going to use to pay for dinner or….

He _needed_ that wallet.

Kylo took off after him, shoving people aside as he ran back in the opposite direction in the streets of Casablanca. Farther and farther away from the small table in the courtyard of La Sqala where Rey Niima was sitting.

……

Rey knew something was up. She didn’t know how but she just knew that she had to dress somewhat fancier than usual for this. She had picked out a white sundress with daisies that reached the ground. It was generally respectable and had three quarter sleeves to keep with the dress code of the city. Maybe it was a little bit too girly and dressy for a formal occasion but she couldn’t help herself.

Maybe it was the way the text was worded “ _I have a proposal for you”_ and “ _Come meet me and find out.”._ Who was she kidding, she was just really hoping it was who she thought it was.

She had no idea how he would have gotten her number in the first place. Maybe he had found it online somewhere, but Rey wasn’t one to share or post her number for anybody in the world to get it. So the chances that Ben Solo had her number were very slim indeed.

She couldn’t bring herself to completely dismiss him from her mind though. If it wasn’t in things would get awkward fast, either that or she could make an excuse that her work clothes were in the wash. That would work wouldn’t it? It would have to if she wanted to save herself from a year’s worth of embarrassment.

It had been years since she had last gotten ready for a date. If sharing ice cream with a boy afterschool in fifth grade was considered a date. It wasn’t a particularly good one anyways considering that her stepfather had found her and berated her all the way home about how she was an investment, and not a good one at that.

Since then she hadn’t much experience in the love department, and considering her pining over stupid Ben Solo she doubted she ever would. She was actually in a better mood towards him than usual since she couldn’t remember a single time during her walk down to the waterfront when she had gotten angry about what he had done to her.

She strolled leisurely, taking her time. Looking at the sights and inhaling the mouth-watering smells of spiced foods. Somehow for the first time since they started the mission she felt at peace – maybe even free. It was a comforting feeling.

She checked the time. _8:15._ Well, guess she was late. But just in case it wasn’t who she wanted it to be she might as well turn up a little bit late. It was barely a five minute walk from the restaurant to the docks. Whoever it was could wait.

She caught the rays of the setting sun stretching out over the water and found herself nearing the pier. Tentatively she reached down, dragging her fingertips through the green midnight water. It was warm and grew darker as the sun set even further. She stood up, ready to walk back to the restaurant when a lady stopped in front of her.

She seemed around her age, maybe a little bit older and was wearing the most gorgeous sea green dress.

She gently clasped Rey’s hands in her own, offering a smile as she spoke, “ كنت جميلة جدا”.

Rey blinked in surprise, completely confused as to what was just said to her, but sure it was friendly. Unsure of herself, she offered a shy smile back and was bade farewell to with a small shake of their hands.

She watched the woman walk away and felt a warmth within her. The breeze picked up as the night air started to set in and she walked back to the restaurant herself.

Immediately a waiter appeared from nowhere and gave her a wide smile which she gladly returned. “Hello madame, is there anybody with you today?”

She paused. She didn’t have a name to give to the waiter to see who was there, and frankly it felt awkward to give Ben’s name in case he wasn’t there at all…or he was going by his other chosen name. So what was there to do?

The waiter stared at her expectedly, smile slipping, and she hastily scrambled to get out her response. “A table for two. The other person should be arriving later.”

“Very good Madame, right this way.”

Under her breath she grumbled, “Someone better be fucking coming or that unknown number is gonna get their ass kicked.”

The waiter turned back, face full of horror. Shit, she hadn’t realized he could potentially hear her. Immediately, she contorted her features into a sheepish smile that was very obviously fake. The waiter maintained his somewhat scandalized expression as he turned around and led her to a table within a sort of courtyard.

In the middle of it was a blue tiled long fountain that stretched down the length of the area, trees and umbrellas overhead on either side of the fountain. Booths with candles and smaller tables with metal chairs adorned with flowers and vines stood closer to the back. The waiter led her to one of them, pulling out her chair for her to allow for seating.

She didn’t manage to catch a glimpse of his face, but she could have sworn he was speed walking away. Minutes later a different waiter came back and she realized she must have scared him off.

A tiny candle stood in the middle of the table and suddenly all of her thoughts about this being a possible date melted away. This was a professional business meeting, and she shouldn't have treated it like anything else in the first place. Why was she so stupid?

She felt like a damn teenager with how she was acting. Rey was on a mission for heaven’s sake. A highly _important_ mission. It was no time for a date. Silently, she berated herself until she had completely killed the mood of happiness and felt irritation creeping in. She sat, watching the people come and go and the sky turned almost black as the stars peeked out overheard.

It had been years since she had last seen the stars. Light pollution had completely sucked them out of the sky from her apartment in Toronto. She hadn’t realized she missed them.

Rey had always felt a _pull_ to space, and whatever was beyond the stars. As if she belonged up there, lost somewhere in the inky blackness. Sometimes she could even imagine holding starlight itself in her hand, concentrated into a single beam, a silver hilt to channel it. Whenever she thought about that _Kylo Ren_ as he was calling himself now (a thoroughly stupid name when he had such a nice one in her opinion) was standing across from her.

She stared and stared – until, “Madame is there anything you would like to order?”

She broke out of her dreamscape and turned to the new waiter. She barely noticed the menu that had been sneakily placed in front of her. “I- um” she stuttered, she hadn’t even picked up the damn menu.

“Give me five more minutes” she asked, taking up the menu and unfolding it. The man nodded at her before stalking off and she scanned it quickly, all the while her brain elsewhere. _Where was this mystery person? And why had they called her to a dinner if they weren’t going to show up?_

She glanced down at her phone, sitting on the table. It was 9:00. Almost an hour since they were supposed to get there. God, she should have never came. She couldn’t believe she had spent a plane ticket upwards of five hundred dollars to go to a dinner which was supposed to have some sort of information to help her.

How could she have been so stupid? There was no way for somebody else to help her. There was no damn information about Vader, and now she had just wasted time trying to figure this out when she could have been searching for clues. A prank, that’s what it had to be. A massive prank!

Of course… maybe Ben really had her number and he had texted her just to distract her. He knew that she would attend the dinner date and had watched her from the shadows, made sure she was oblivious to the entire thing. Then he had gone off to find a clue while she sat here like an idiot wasting time. 

That was exactly something that devious asshole would do. Leia would murder her if she found out she had gallivanted off to a fancy dinner when she had a job to do. Instantly Rey felt disappointed with herself. She had a company to save.. _a family to save._ Screw Benjamin Organa- Solo.

If she ever saw him again for real she was going to _kill him_. Or at least severely injure him.

But for now she had to get out of here.

She got up from her chair, metal scraping against the stone floor and cringed. Great, now she was drawing attention to herself as she dashed. She grabbed her phone, speed walking away from the table and back to the front of the restaurant.

She passed her waiter, now holding a large bottle of water, who gave her a surprised look, mouth contorted into an O.

She didn’t smile as she ran out.

She began to pick up speed as her sandals slapped against the stones, causing her feet to ache. At least her hotel wasn’t far away.

She felt the slow chill of the night within her bones as she got to the lobby of her hotel, going upstairs and taking off her sandals before tossing them across the room.

Tomorrow she was going to Tangier to properly get started on another possible clue.

Because that was where Vader had died, and she was in Morocco anyways.

………..

A very tired Kylo burst down the road and to the entrance of La Sqala. It was 9:10 and he would be surprised if she had even bothered waiting around, but he had to take that chance.

He was winded and almost completely out of breath, wallet in hand, after a _very long_ high speed chase through what seemed like the entirety of Casablanca just to get his damn wallet back. He was not planning on letting Rey pay for dinner, and so it had seemed worth it in the moment. But looking at the restaurant he realized maybe it hadn’t been. He could have always covered it the next time if she accepted his proposal.

He dragged his feet into the restaurant, surprised he hadn’t soaked his shirt with sweat. Panting, he addressed the man at the front, “Have you seen a girl in here? Brown hair, kind eyes?”

The man narrowed his eyes, scanning him up and down before his expression twisted into one of distaste. He couldn’t imagine why – he had left the holsters and everything back in his hotel room. Wait – it was probably his composition.

Kylo straightened up. The man chose to answer him rather poorly, “There are many girls that come through here sir.”

He practically growled. He bet none of them looked like her. “She’s tall for a girl, _chestnut_ brown hair, tanned skin. She was probably wearing some kind of white.” She was virtuous like that. It was just her colour. How he knew that he couldn’t tell.

The man scowled, obviously discontented with his manner of speaking. Kylo almost groaned. “There was a girl who possibly matches that description. She rushed out here just a few minutes ago.”

He had the strong urge to yell at somebody. It looked like it was going to be the poor waiter. “The fuck do you mean a few minutes ago? As in she was literally just here?”

“Sir we do not tolerate that kind of-“

“Shut up. Did you see what direction she went?”

He desperately needed to speak to her. This was possibly the only chance the two of them were going to get.

“Sir I’m going to have to ask you to leave before I call security.”

Oh, he was so going to throttle this guy. Kylo reached towards him to grip the collar, and the man gasped in fright. He called out before Kylo was fully able to get his hands around his throat. “Security!”

Almost immediately, hands grabbed at his jacket and he shook them off. Palms raised, as he backed away. He was so tempted to go back there and rough him up a bit but it would just be unnecessary.

He walked back to his room. Granted he had lost his temper there for no reason at all. But he was damned near desperate at this point. The proposal was slightly evil and maybe just a little bit too self-serving, but it would be helpful in the end right?

He sighed, running his hand over his face. He needed to get himself under control. But it seemed that when things concerned her they rarely ever went according to plan. Kylo had missed his chance and now he was going to have to deal with it.

Besides, he had to be in Tangier tomorrow. Because Snoke had told him maybe starting backwards would be helpful. If he was lucky she hadn’t pieced together something similar and he could get on with this thing without ever meeting her.

He wasn’t going to try contacting her again. He knew better. So with that he walked back to his hotel, hands in his pocket. Feeling dreadfully sad for a few reasons, but only one seriously mattered.

He was now truly her enemy.


	11. Round 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everybody!
> 
> Here's my apology update for staying away for so long. I really wanted to make this story more about Ben Solo's player side but decided maybe soft, resigned Ben Solo was a better starting point. Don't worry, he'll come out of his shell and start to flirt more when they get more comfortable with each other. Good dialogue is really hard to write tbh I keep making it up and then thinking i'll remember it when I get to actually writing the chapter later in the week, never works lol
> 
> Let me know how i'm doing!
> 
> Next update coming after June 10

As the sun rose across the landscape the tiled walls of white buildings glinted with promise. She felt the _pull_ here. As if this was the place she was supposed to be in all along from the beginning. If only she hadn’t written this off as a usual case… it was anything but.

Rey hadn’t expected to find any value with the information her team had collected about where Vader had died. Working backwards was just ridiculous right? How could anybody expect for a trail to a long lost treasure to start from when they died instead of when they lived?

She had been careless – clueless even. For that reason she couldn’t stop chastising herself. She was supposed to take that sort of thing into account, but instead it seemed like her brain was fried. Rey was acting like it was her first job ever, she had been so much more thorough in the past.

So why was it that this was the mission that was throwing her off her game?

Rey Niima didn’t like it one bit.

She had been distracted lately with other problems. While she tried to convince herself she was really here for the mission – the things that had happened in Casablanca… that train wreck, just showed her how childish and inexperienced she was acting.

Her actions hadn’t even made sense. Ben Solo couldn’t be anywhere near this case. Why he had gotten stuck in her mind she didn’t know or understand, but she knew she had tricked herself into some sort of massive illusion. 

Because it was a secret mission, right under First Order Enterprises noses, to gain back their prestige as a company. To get back their sponsors and overthrow their rivals as the best company in their line of business. He had next to no involvement if the mission went as planned, and even then.. she doubted it concerned him .

Fuck their multiple archives and media ties. This would be remembered _forever_ , the most high-profile and mysterious treasure lost to history. It would single-handedly save Leia’s company from ruin, from the debt that they found themselves in.

It was a dangerous job, if the police reports and dead bodies had anything to say about it at least. One misstep could result in a butterfly effect that would haunt her forever – or even in a fatality.

There was no information on Vader, that was correct, but now that she knew the lengths his obsessive cultists went to for him, that there was a mysterious _she_ , and some very obvious problems she didn't know what to expect.

A story like this one was highly profitable. Maybe if Resistance Treasures wasn’t so concerned about keeping afloat they would have announced it themselves. The publicity they would have gotten could have possibly exposed First Order Enterprises for the scum that they were before they were able to get to them first. It also would have put a massive target on her back.

That was if there wasn’t already one.

If she was right, because you could never truly be safe during one of these things, the bounty hunters were on her tail.

See, that was what she had been missing. Now she was functioning at full capacity, the smoke shield that had been placed on her mind dissipated. She had to focus on staying alive long enough to get this done, or evading possible kidnappings.

Rey had to keep her eyes and ears open, be armed at all times. Which was why that morning as she awoke she strapped multiple daggers to her person. She had three at least hidden underneath her clothes, two strapped to either arm and another to her which she tucked into the waistband of her jeans at the back. She had her trusty pocketknife in her boot.

The only thing that could possibly stop her from defending herself now would be a police frisk, which wouldn’t happen if she was careful. Leia didn’t have the means to bail her out of some Moroccan jail.

Rey Niima was all by herself now.

And she was ready for whatever was about to come her way.

She hadn’t yet explored the workings of Tangier, having arrived just a couple of hours ago before passing out. It was a large city, or at least large enough that she came to understand that it was pretty easy to get lost. Not even a map was able to help her when she finally got out there.

From her view on the street she could scarcely make out the differences between the buildings, passing a suspiciously beige coloured one three times before realizing she had been going in a circle. All she was trying to do was find Bab Al Bahr.

She had definitely not banked on the fact that she was going to spend hours searching for it. The people of the bazaar hadn’t known what she was saying, staring at her as if she had grown two heads as she pitifully tried to engage with them using the few sentences of Arabic that she knew.

It wasn’t enough to get a proper location other than a few points in a general direction of straight, which wasn’t very helpful when she had been going straight for about two hours.

She never thought that she would see so many fruits and different sweets spread out on a single street, but there they were. And her stomach grumbled in accordance to tell her to drag herself over to one of the carts and grab at least an apple.

But Rey had stupidly forgotten to exchange her money back when her brain was still being scrambled. She definitely hadn’t needed it for her imaginary date – not date – so she hadn’t thought to change it out at the hotel when the mysterious unknown number should have been paying for taking up her time.

She had just settled on one of the few benches scattered through Tangier, beside a very sketchy looking alleyway when the buzzing started. Rey nearly groaned. They always wanted to talk when she was in the middle of something didn’t they?

Her research team, who seemed to be staring into each other’s eyes more than actually _researching_ was incessant with their bad timing calls. Not that she was complaining – she actually thought that they were super cute.

Or at least when they weren’t hanging around that sinister creep Armitage Hux. She heard about him bringing them coffee and catching up with them way too much to not be suspicious. The guy gave her the worst vibes, and she expected that was for a good reason.

This time they wanted to facetime, and she almost hit the decline button before realizing that she did indeed need to catch them up on the goings on of her work. So unhappily, she pressed accept.

Instantly, an image of Poe and Finn with their arms slung around each other’s shoulders, Poe holding the phone up, came into view.

“Rey!”

“Peanut!”, they both said at the same time, and the sound was loud enough to make her wince, but smile regardless.

“Hey you two.” she said, not unkindly, but certainly not with excitement.

“Soooo… how did your date go?” Poe asked, a knowing smile on his face.

Rey blushed, suddenly feeling very awkward, and repressing the urge to scowl. Of course that were going to bring that up, she should have known. But then again it was supposed to have been a work dinner.

“It wasn’t a date” she grumbled.

“So you’re blushing because it was a date and you’re lying?” Finn asked curiously.

Rey blushed even harder. Damn them! It hadn’t been a date.

“It wasn’t a date.” she repeated, a little bit louder, and with an edge of warning behind her voice. “Whoever it was didn’t show up.”

“Alright boss.” Poe said, in a teasing way that made her want to curl up in a ball. “Anyways whatcha up to right now?”

“On my way to Bab Al Bahr” she replied, thankful the conversation was moving on.

“Ahh, smart. Darth Vader’s resting place. Can I call it a resting place when his body was spirited away from there by cultists?” Poe asked.

Finn rolled his eyes. “No, then it’s not a resting place. It’s the place where he took his last breath.”

“Nah too poetic, I think that resting place works a lot better.”

Rey opened her mouth to say that she should probably get back to figuring out where she was supposed to go – she had an unlimited international data plan but she had some semblance of pride. If she couldn’t read a simple map then she definitely wasn’t cut out for this sort of job.

But something shuffled in the background behind the two bickering men.

She caught the flash of ginger hair before it moved out of frame and immediately Rey knew who had been lurking in the back.

Hux.

She lowered her voice. “Why is Hux with you guys?”. They were off work, she could tell from the white paint and bohemian decorations on the wall, pointing her to the fact that this was somebody’s apartment.

“We invited him over to chill with us and he’s the one that suggested we should call and check on you. Since you’re so bad at texting.” Finn pointed out.

“Maybe we should call more often. She’s much more talkative over the phone.”

Rey really did roll her eyes this time, but she was not annoyed. “Come on, I need to learn how to be more independent.” She had relied upon them too much in the beginning, and it hadn’t been particularly helpful. Considering the fact that they had been put together specifically for her sake back when she first got the job. Which meant it was Finn and Poe’s first time meeting.

It had been exceptionally awkward for her because they had had undeniable chemistry from the beginning. Which was why they were more co-workers than friends in the first place, because not only had she not had time to go to the bar with them, but Rey wasn’t looking forward to being a third-wheel.

However, they seemed to think that they were closer to her than they actually were. Finn and Poe were good people, just not _her_ people. She felt a little too isolated with them, like she didn’t belong. It wasn’t a feeling she welcomed.

“You’re very independent Rey. Come on we need to be a stronger team. We should have done a couple team building exercises before you jetted off to Ireland.” Poe shook his head.

“Why is Hux chilling with you guys?” she asked.

“We’re friends now. All the coffee runs he does for us.. he’s a pretty cool guy.” Finn shrugged.

Rey really _scowled_ this time. There was no way Armitage Hux was a cool guy.

The smile dropped off of Poe’s face. “Rey we understand that you don’t like him, but he’s been worried about you too. He always asks where you are and what you’re doing. If you’re safe even. You should give him more credit.”

She felt bad. Okay, maybe she felt _really_ bad. He was concerned for her and here she was being an ass about him hanging out with her co-workers.

“Yeah, sorry.” she apologized genuinely.

Immediately, the smiles were back on Poe and Finn’s faces. They opened their mouths to say something – she had no idea what they were gonna say at the exact same time, it was crazy how in sync they were – but she stopped them.

“I have to go now. Lots of work to do and I have to reach Bab Al Bahr by sundown at least.”

“Yeah of course. Stay safe Rey.”

“You got this Peanut!”

She ended the call. She had gone through more emotions in that call than she had in a while, and now her social battery was almost out.

She didn’t even feel hungry anymore, which was a bad thing because now it meant she would end up going the entire day without eating a single thing.

Rey got up from the bench, stretching her legs before gazing back at the map now in her hand once again. She found her location and used her finger to trace where she was supposed to go. As she did this she started to find her way through alleyways, the sun began to set as she realized she had been going in the wrong direction all morning.

All she wanted to do was make it before the sun had completely set and the shadows of the night made it harder to find the familiar scratch of the symbols or even any other clue. As she got closer she felt the _pull_ become stronger, and she ended up tucking the map away, feeling like she was following a personal homing beacon.

She picked up her pace to a brisk jog as she wound in and out of streets, into and out of alleyways before she stopped in front of another. This alleyway was a beautiful, the light pouring in from overheard and large archways on the sides of the buildings that gave way to the entrances of houses. It was empty, and she had somewhere to be.

As much as she wanted to stroll through it she couldn't, it wouldn’t hurt to go through this one a little faster. Unlike all the other places there was not a soul in sight, she could breeze through it without trampling over a few people.

So Rey began to run through it, looking down at her feet to mind the uneven stones, and maybe even so that she didn’t have to remind herself that she was missing out on the most gorgeous view all day.

She slammed into something that felt like pure muscle and stumbled forward, almost crashing into the ground. She straightened herself immediately. She couldn’t bring herself to look behind her at what or who she had crashed into, it would be too embarrassing. So Rey decided to be an asshole for once and continue on her way without so much as a sorry, cheeks searing.

She just wanted to get away as fast as she could, back out into the crowded streets where whoever it was couldn’t see her and –

“Rey?”

She knew that voice.

Rey _knew_ that voice.

That voice didn’t belong here. She was going crazy, she just had to be.

Should she take a chance and turn around? Most that would happen would be that she didn’t crash into anything at all, she had imagined doing that. And then when she turned around there would be nothing there and she could go along her day trying to forget about how crazy she was.

She could just keep on walking, ignore it completely. But… what if it really was him? And he was right behind her and-

She stopped thinking and turned around.

Fuck.

He really was there and he was _so gorgeous._ Goodness, he looked even better than he did in her dreams. _Her bloody dreams!_ Weren’t those supposed to make people look more perfect than they actually did? Why was it that he looked better than in her dreams??

He was right here in front of her, all muscle and luscious hair and- did he get taller? He seemed taller than she remembered. But maybe that was because last time she had been so focused on _not dying_ that there was no time to evaluate how tall he was.

She practically had to look up to see him and Rey was by no means a short girl.

His eyes were warm pools of amber that always seemed to betray his emotions. But this time his face wasn’t contorted into a mask that was devoid of emotion or even held promise of darkness or teasing.

No, he was looking at her with a face of utter disbelief. As if he couldn’t quite imagine she was real.

“Ben?” she echoed his name back at him, at a complete loss for words.

They stood there, taking each other in for what felt like forever – and somehow also not long enough.

“What the hell are you doing here?” she asked, desperately trying to sound intimidating, or even angry. But her voice came out somewhat breathless and surprised.

His eyes darkened a little bit as he finally seemed to realize himself, settling back into a neutral face.

“What are _you_ doing here?” he questioned back, his tone deep and rich.

She opened her mouth to answer his question, but then quickly shut it again, trying to will her features to take on a steely image.

He was trying to start with her. But she wouldn’t let him get a rise out of her yet. No, she still had to compute the fact that her delusional idea of Ben Solo magically taking her on a just two days ago could have possibly been a reality. How had her brain known?

He seemed to sense her decision to remain stubborn, and she could have sworn he had almost smirked at her. “I’m here for the same reason as you.”

Oh, so he was _definitely_ trying to get a rise out of her? Well now it seemed to be working.

She frowned. “What do you mean the same reason as me?”

He took a step closer and Rey could feel the warmth from him wash over her. She repressed the urge to shiver. His voice lowered, “You know.”

“I actually don’t think I do know _Ben.”_ he flinched slightly, scowling, and she smirked. She knew how much he hated that name. “I didn’t realize stalking was a new part of your resume. But then again I shouldn’t be surprised considering the type of people you work for.” Her tone took on a sickly sweet but venomous edge.

She saw him clench his right hand into a fist out of the corner of her eye. Good. At least she could remind herself about how much of an asshole he was so the romantic part of her brain could lay itself to rest.

“If you’re done insulting me I thought maybe we could have a civil conversation _Ms. Niima.”_ Why did it sound so attractive coming from him? Why did everything sound attractive when It came out of his mouth. She could only imagine the things he could do with it.

Nope. This was a professional conversation between two enemies. She had to treat it as such. So Rey threw herself into the part as much as possible.

“But insulting you is so much fun.” she spat. “Especially since it seems like you enjoy it.”

“Maybe I do.” he smirked, although he looked slightly taken aback by her tone. Well that didn’t work.

“Look.” he reached out to touch her arm, maybe pull her closer she didn’t know. Rey recoiled, taking a step back. She caught the look of hurt that flashed in his eyes and the way his face settled into one of disinterest and impassiveness.

She immediately regretted it. He dropped his hand back to his side. Her eyes followed, and she saw the phone open to Google Maps in his left. She almost scoffed, of course he took the easy way out.

“Fine. Since you’re choosing to treat me like I’m some sort of monster I guess it doesn’t matter that I invited you to dinner yesterday to strike up a partnership.”

She really regretted it. Wait. Dinner? It was him?

She didn’t even try to hide the gasp and her look of absolute surprise.

“That _was_ you?” she breathed out.

“Yes.”

“Oh my god.”

So she wasn’t crazy at all! She hadn’t imagined the entire thing. Ben Solo really had been coming to take her out on a date – no, dinner – no, _work_ dinner. With every clarification she made she felt herself becoming more and more disappointed.

He gave her a look of confusion (he definitely thought she was crazy) and then seemed to brace himself before speaking again.

“Anyways. I’m assuming you don’t want to hear what I have to say-“

A gunshot rang out worryingly close to them.

They both ducked, covering their heads and it seemed within the inherent need to get to the ground to dodge it, he had pulled her in close to his chest and was shielding her head with one arm. The other he was using to shield his own head.

And what a shield it was. His arms were even more massive up close. Her face was pushed up against his _very solid_ chest but she could see his large hand from her field of view. Ugh, everything about him was huge. She had half a mind to jump on him right now.

But she had to remain strong, so Rey tried to struggle against him but he was h _olding_ her against him. The largeness was suddenly no longer attractive. Why did he have to be so big? It was making it hard for her to put distance between them. Distance she needed to keep her head screwed on straight.

She could tell he must be looking around, scouting what was around them.

That’s when another one rang out, and suddenly she was pulling him close to her again. God, she was changing her mind like she lived by that Katy Perry song.

She felt what felt like his nose _nuzzle her hair?_ As he spoke leaned down a little bit to speak to her.

“I can’t see them. Don’t make a sound.”

The sun had disappeared and now the dusk was turning into night, she could tell by the increased amount of shadows on the buildings she could see. They shouldn’t be standing out in the open. They had to run, regardless of whether it was meant for them or not.

Another bang and a whizzing noise passed by her. She felt Ben slightly release her with a grunt. She used that to get out of his arms, seeing him now clutching onto his upper bicep where blood was now running between his fingers.

“Shit” she said under her breath, moving to apply more pressure. “We have to run Ben.” she said, trying to stop her voice from shaking because never had the kidnappers had guns on them.

He looked back up at her, surprisingly like he wasn’t in pain as he dug his fingers into the wound deeper. She grabbed at him, trying to pry them off. “Stop you’re hurting yourself and making it worse.”

“Why do you ca-“ he was cut off as something else rang out.

A distinctively male voice said “Found the bitch.”

Bitch? Was she the bitch? She didn’t care to find out. Without a second thought she grabbed Ben’s left hand, clasping it tightly within her own and _sprinted_.

He seemed to grip hers tighter as she ran for her life, Ben in tow. They got down the length of the alleyway and Rey just had to know in case they saw her again. She turned her head right before they turned the corner to get out into a street and saw three massive men, dressed in black with masks over their face. Another filed in behind them, and the barrels of multiple pistols stared her down.

She heard the gunshots echo behind her as they hit the wall, seconds away from hitting the two of them.

………….

Kylo was trying to remain calm. Key word being _trying._

He was trying not to focus on the fact that her hand was in his right now, and it felt like it was made to fit in there. He was trying to ignore the fact that he had held her in his arms, and she had pulled back into him.

Most of all he was trying to ignore the fact that someone was currently shooting at the two of them. With the intent to kill Rey. _His_ Rey. His brain didn’t falter for even half a second before correcting him. _Not his Rey._

Bounty-hunters were a problem in the job. Bounty-hunters with guns? Less so - although he tended to inspire heavy artillery wherever he went. Judging by her reaction and the evident fear in her eyes Rey had never encountered bounty hunters with guns.

Which made sense considering he was the one who brought trouble with him wherever he went. The probability of her being safe in the mirror cave all those years ago if he hadn’t been there was high. The probability of her being safe right now was also high.

But then again, whoever was chasing them had said “the bitch”. Not them. Not him. Which meant they had been looking for her, and he had gotten caught in the middle of it.

He wasn’t sure whether that meant he should be relieved or not. He wasn’t the cause of her being in danger, maybe it would be better if he was.

He had no idea where he was going – where the two of them were going – racing down the suspiciously empty streets that had seemed full of people just an hour ago.

The darkness of the night was starting to set in and various streetlights and torches were the only things letting him see. They were surprisingly fast runners, but judging by the gunshot that had just narrowly missed his ear two seconds ago… not fast enough.

They had to find somewhere to hide. An alleyway came up before them and Kylo turned his head to see a black boot begin to step around the previous corner. He ducked into the alleyway, pulling Rey along, and hearing her cry softly a he realized he had almost smacked her straight into brick.

He wanted to apologize, probably a million times over for almost hurting her but there was no time. He spun her around as he pulled her in front of him and shoved them both into a very small, and very cramped alcove.

He could feel all of her in this position. He sincerely hoped she couldn’t feel all of him.

He poked his head out of it slightly to see someone run by their spot and then tucked himself back in before feeling something sharp at his throat. Bloody hell she was ridiculous.

Kylo looked down at Rey to see her arm up, a face contorted with rage as she pressed a knife into his throat. She hated him. He knew that she hated him from the beginning. She had her reasons.. he had made her believe those reasons.

He hated her too, but for entirely different reasons. He hated how she was making him feel right now even when she was looking at him like he was the scum of the Earth.

She was looking at him with the same ferocity he expected his mother had possessed all those years ago. He felt the anger course through him, Leia was training her well then it seemed. Well in the art of turning into the sort of person who abandoned the ones who loved them every chance they got.

He almost lost it. Or wanted to lose it. But she sobered him with that sweet voice of hers.

“Okay. Spill it Solo. What’s all this partnership business.” she growled at him.

Fuck, she was hot. 

But also evil. Yes, she had to be evil.

“I’m not going to talk to you while you hold a knife to my throat.” he said, wary of the fact that she was digging it in a little too deep for it to be an idle threat. He tried to tilt his head back to get away from it, but the alcove was too tight. Too hot. Pretty soon he was going to start sweating.

Could she feel the tension? He could feel it. He was probably the only one. He hated that even more. She would never feel it too.

“You can, and you will. I got it out first because you were too slow so now you answer my questions or I injure you. Keep in mind that we are enemies. I’ll do what I have to to get that saber back.” she said, as if she were trying to convince herself of the fact. He almost laughed, but then steeled his expressions. She was being serious, he would indulge her. He didn’t want her to get mad.

But why was that? He wasn’t going to deny the fact that he was attracted to her, but why did he care if she got mad. He wanted her to get mad. If she hated him more then it would make it all easier for him, and then he could simmer in his hatred for her for the rest of his life. Just like how he wanted to.

He used one hand to pull a knife out of his back pocket. Two could play at that game.

“I don’t doubt it. But you seem to forget I have a few years in the business on you.” He flickered his eyes down before looking back up at her. She narrowed hers before following his stare to her waist where a similar dagger was resting at her side.

He took in her shocked face, smirking before she could see him doing that too. She didn’t need to know what she amused him, who knows if she would use it against him in the future.

She hadn’t even noticed he had pulled one out on her too. He wasn’t even really pressing it into her.

She didn’t seem to realize that she as pressing the knife further into his neck. He could feel the warmth of blood begin to spill over from under the cold metal.

He was really getting multiple injuries today because of her. Granted, he hadn’t noticed how his injured arm was pushing into the brick, definitely staining the wall red.

She looked back at him, trying to seem a little bit intimidating. She even looked slightly apologetic at him for what he assumed was her cutting him before she reigned in her expression.

When had they gotten so close? Their bodies were practically pushed up together, it must look like they were doing something very inappropriate if anybody chose to look into the alcove. As if it hadn’t already been a tight squeeze before, she felt impossibly near.

He wished it wouldn’t end. But it had to, because his anger had to reign supreme. It wouldn’t happen again once it all over so he should have tried to enjoy it. But it left Kylo with a bitter taste in his mouth.

Because he was using her. It was all part of an elaborate, but not really elaborate plan. They would cover more ground together. Uncover more together. They would find the treasure together, and he would get rid of her. Like he had failed to do years ago.

Strand her in some jungle depending on where they ended up. Rob her and leave her in some sort of village? It would take her a long time to get home from there.

Granted he hadn’t needed to get rid of her back then, which was why he had saved her. But oh how much easier it would have made his job now. Resistance Treasures would have been in the dirt long ago. Just how he wanted it. And when it was all over she would hate him again from wherever she ended up. Like she should. Like she always had.

Kylo was trying to strike up a partnership with Rey so that he could use her and take the treasure for himself. It was an asshole move, way beyond that. And maybe he didn’t want to. But he had to do it.

Maybe it would be easier if he gave her over to whoever was hunting her down now. No, he needed her. And he also didn’t want her to die.

After he had taken the treasure for himself he just needed to get her off his case long enough to bring it home, flaunt it to the media a little bit and make sure Resistance Treasures went under.

Then he might even come back and get her. Just to make sure she was alright. No he didn’t need to bother. Who cared if she was alright. _You do_ , his brain said. No he didn't.

She brought the knife down from his neck, flipping it back into her sleeve and probably slightly nicking herself as she winced and gritted her teeth. He drew his own away from her waist, tucking it back into his back pocket.

“I think they’re probably gone Ben.”

There she went with that name again. His name was Kylo, but he also didn’t want to correct her.

She slid out of the alcove, her body rubbing against him in a much too sexual way as she popped out. Suddenly it felt like he could breathe again.

“Let’s discuss this over dinner. You’re paying.” she said, walking out into the street.

His breath hitched as he removed himself from the alcove, watching her go. He swore she looked like she bathed in moonlight.


	12. Ready?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is dedicated to all my lovely readers who have gotten me to over 1K reads! An extra long chapter for waiting an especially long time for me to finish my exams so I could get this to you. I have to apologize about the late timing though, I managed to almost break my computer by spilling some water over it. All was almost lost! But I ground out this chapter as fast as possible to extra make it up to you and it's the longest one i've written yet. 
> 
> I hope you all love it!
> 
> Also I recognize that Ben goes through 5 million emotions during one conversation. But that's what I love about writing his character. And Rey is always able to temper it in some way or remain understanding about it. They're such a couple and i'm excited to keep progressing their relationship. Stay safe everybody :D

Kylo trailed behind her as she slunk through the streets. The nerves were kind of getting to him just thinking about the fact that their previous dinner which had gone awry had taken him _days_ to calm down about.

If he didn’t know any better he would say she was nervous too, her mind seemingly on high alert as she checked every corner and looked at every rooftop and window. But the way she was moving wasn’t tense at all, it seemed rather relaxed. More relaxed than he had ever seen her at least.

It was a little unnerving watching her as her actions contradicted her body language. Then again Rey Niima was an enigma unto herself and he wasn’t sure he would ever come to truly understand her. Granted, she was a lot simpler to read than most human beings. He was just bad at connecting the dots with other people sometimes.

They thought he was odd, imposing, sometimes even scary. Considering his clothing choices and the multiple holsters of guns and knives that wouldn’t be an incorrect observation.

That didn’t mean he completely agreed with it.

She paused suddenly, looking up at the moon.

Kylo stopped in his tracks just to stare at her.

Her hand moved to the back of her jeans, pulling up her jean jacket which exposed smooth skin and a white tank top. He could see the familiar glint of metal tucked there. The shadows cast at her feet and the silver light on her face and her white clothing made her glow as if she was some supernatural being. He half felt like moving in front of her and checking himself, drawing his thumb-

The nerves came back in even fuller force. Damn, why did she have to be pretty? He had one job. Get her to agree to his deal, get the saber, be done with it. Then fuck off so he never had to see her again.

The ache in his arm from where the bullet has grazed him begged to differ. He used his good arm to reach up and pull the collar of his black shirt away from his throat. If he thought the days were hot they were _nothing_ compared to the nights.

She started moving again and called to him over her shoulder, “Move it. If I don’t like what you have to say I have things to get to.”

He scowled. “You know that I have the same things to do right?”

She turned then, fury colouring her features a light red and her eyes looking wild. “The fact that you have the same fucking things to do is the problem.” She pointed at him, venom dripping off of her words, “I don’t even want to know what type of illegal activity goes on at that company that you knew about a _secret_ mission and got enough intel to follow me here and _know_ what to find here too.”

He felt the anger rising, couldn’t she just talk to him normally without flying off the handle? Honestly he didn’t know why she hated him so much because he couldn’t quite recall doing anything to her. She on the other hand was pretty detestable. Especially when she acted like this.

Kylo schooled his face into one that communicated control. “Rey is it that impossible to believe that such a high profile and mysterious treasure wouldn’t be investigated, by what I would like to remind you is a very successful company?” He hadn’t lied. Just hadn’t given her the full truth.

“It is _impossible_ to believe. It’s impossible to believe that they came up with such an original and ground-breaking idea at the EXACT same time as Resistance Treasures.”

The name itself almost made him see red. He was definitely going to break something when he got back to his hotel room.

“It’s a good thing we’re both here at the same time. I recall that being the second time I’ve saved you now.” he spat, clenching his fists in anger.

That set her off. He almost regretted provoking her this much. Almost.

She spluttered, “Second time?”. Rey marched up to him, poking him in the chest with a hard jab. “I don’t think there was even a first time. I would have survived an onslaught of bullets from those guys with or without you.”

Kylo couldn’t say that he didn’t enjoy torturing himself. He was enjoying it way too much to stop, so he kept pushing. “Just admit you like seeing me Rey.” he said darkly. And even though the larger part of him was angry, a smaller part within him truly wanted her to admit she was.

Her eyes widened and she looked like she was second away from drawing her knife again and cutting him to bits. Not like she would be able to do it. “I hate your fucking face.”

And then she blushed. A deep, deep red that logically considering the situation should have been anger. But he never did the logical thing when it came to Rey. So therefore, he was going to misinterpret it how he wanted to. Just to satisfy that smaller part of himself that took pride in the fact that he was able to make her blush. Oh, how he wished he could see where the pale red on her collarbones continued down to.

He suppressed the surprising urge to laugh, forcing it down and putting on a slight smile instead. “Then why the fuck are you blushing.”

She stepped back, startled. “You’re so lucky I’m still willing to hearing your business proposition. Next time you say stupid shit like that to me I won’t hesitate to put a knife in your thigh.”

She turned back around and stormed off. But it was obvious she wasn’t happy with the lack of enough distance between them as his large steps quickly caught up to an even pace behind her. As his anger cooled rapidly he found himself smiling, surprised that she even let him get away with half of it.

Kylo was definitely still going to smash something when he got back to his room.

…………..

Rey was moving as quickly as possible through the winding and narrow alleyways, looking for the restaurant she had seen near her hotel. Thankfully, they had managed to run to an area that was pretty close to where she was staying which meant she hadn’t needed to use the map and look like an idiot.

Still fuming over Ben’s stupid comments, she marched like a woman on a mission. Truthfully, she wasn’t sure why she was giving him a second chance after all the fun he’d had at her expense. He has disarmed her with his half smile right when she had been ready to give him a good jab with his sharpest knife.

All she had to do was get through the godforsaken dinner with him and when she inevitably- and hopefully- turned down his proposition she could go back to planning ways to murder him in his sleep.

Finally, she saw the glowing sign of the tiny sit down eatery and felt a sense of relief wash over her. She felt him move behind her, getting closer, and tried to ignore his looming presence. Not only was his ego the size of moon but he of course was given enough height to go with it.

She didn’t chance a look back at him as she opened the door and walked in before going up to a table for two and throwing herself into a chair. Then she opened the menu and held it in front of her face to hide the daggers she was throwing at him.

Just because he didn’t know how to be professional didn’t mean that she didn't.

She heard his chair scrape back and his huge frame settle in, his long legs spanning out and crowding her space. Good. At least now if she wanted to maim him with a butter knife she had the opportunity to do so.

Rey peeked slightly over the menu to watch him wince as he picked his own up and before she could stop herself she spoke, “Is it alright?”

He gave an amused chuckle and she realized she probably looked very odd with her eyes being the only thing poking out from on top of the paper. She cleared her throat and closed it, putting it down and trying to stop the embarrassed flush fighting to make its way onto her face.

He opened his mouth, probably to make another infuriating comment and Rey shot a look at him, to which he immediately shut up and conceded.

After a few seconds of staring each other down in silence he spoke again, with his rich deep voice and she shivered. Feeling suddenly suffocated by the intense amount of tension between them. She shifted uncomfortably in her chair.

“It’s been better after you wrapped it.” he said quietly as he opened his own menu. Looking like he was trying to get lost in reading it.

She felt a little offended. Well, if he was going to act like she wasn’t there then she would too. Rey did the same, pretending to be interested in the ripped up wrap on her hand. She had taken it off after they had come out of their hiding spot and ripped it up into two pieces: one for a makeshift tourniquet for Ben’s arm and kept the other. Then, she had wound it around her hand and tucked it into her leather armbands which held her knives.

She wasn’t going to waste good fabric. The entire reason she wore such a long one over her tanks was in case of an emergency. And because it was pretty light for transport. She could still see the dried blood on the edge of the white fabric at the side of her palm where she had cleaned up his neck.

Rey followed her train of thought, “Come back to my room. I have a first aid kit.”

He froze, and instantly she noticed what she had said. Shit. She didn’t _really_ want him to come back to her room. Well, she did. But not for any reasons that he was probably thinking. All she was trying to do was be a good person.

She braced herself, sure that he was going to be annoying enough this time that she could truly walk away with no regrets. Ben did not go by her expectations.

“It’s alright… I have my own back in my room.”

“Right.”

She could feel how awkward it was becoming. What were two enemies supposed to say to each other than taunts and jab? Rey didn’t feel like it. Not after the exhausting chase which was slowly catching up to her and the slight fear that the masked men in black were going to come find her and leave bullet holes in her body.

And she kind of wanted it to be like what she had imagined when she had frolicked out of her hotel room in a daisy patterned dress. Back when she had randomly thought he had invited her out to dinner.

A waiter came by and took their order and she knew then that as soon as he left she and Ben were going to have to talk.

Their menus were carted away and then it was just them. The two of them, looking at each other. It felt like the rest of the world wasn’t in on a secret just the two of them shared. It was at that moment she decided to choose her weapon, she slipped the butter knife sitting beside her plate into her lap as they looked at each other.

She began to fiddle with it under the table, feeling its grooves, points, and edges. She was going to have to play it cool and sweet to not arouse suspicion from other people around, but she was going to keep her weapon trained on him just in case she needed to run. Rey could have just slipped one out of her armband, but managing to lodge a dull knife in him would be so much more painful right?

“This business proposal that you thought was so important. Explain it to me.” she said.

“I was thinking-“ he started.

“Wait. Before you try anything… look under the table.” she said, unable to stop herself as she fake smiled. And then suddenly she felt very idiotic. Of course a large amount of stabbing wouldn’t get a butter knife well and truly stuck in him. But oh well, it looked like she was going to have to roll with it.

If he looked unsettled by her sudden change in mood he didn’t show it. Hesitantly he looked down as if contemplating whether to do it or not. “Rey I-“

“Look.”

He bent down immediately, ducking his head under it, probably seeing the glinting metal. He sat back up. “You still want to kill me?”

She almost thought he sounded a little sad. He quickly ducked down again to look at it, and came up with an odd look on his face.

“With a fucking butter knife of all things?” he asked, seemingly confused now rather than upset. The way his eyebrows drew together reminded her of a confused puppy and she almost kicked herself for thinking it was cute.

“I don’t want to kill anybody” Rey said, feeling more and more massively stupid by the second. “I do want to remind you however that if you try to fuck me over here I will do what I have to just to escape.”

He gave her a look that definitely said all the street cred she had built up by putting a knife to his throat was gone before settling into a stony face. “As I was saying before you interrupted… I think we could be of use to each other.”

Rey narrowed her eyes in suspicion, grateful that he was changing the topic. What had possessed her to think of using a bloody butter knife as a weapon? She half wanted to stab herself with it, but tried to get her mind back on topic. What use could they possibly have for one another?

“The two of us are the best our companies have. I think that if we want to have any chance finding the saber it’s better if we work together.”

“If we’re the best out companies have shouldn’t we be able to carry out this mission separately?” she asked, slipping the knife back onto the table slowly and hoping he wouldn’t notice.

He leaned in closer, making her heart skip a beat. Thank god he didn’t notice.

“I think we both know that we can’t do this alone. Besides you have seven armed men trailing you. Mercenaries and assassins by the look of them. Don’t you think two against seven has better odds than one against seven?”

“Who says they weren’t trailing you?” Rey retorted. But she knew that it had been her they were after, if the words “ _Found the bitch.”_ were anything to go off of. Then again, men could also just as easily be referred to as bitches.

He gave her a look of annoyance before leaning back in his chair again, crossing his arms.

“Wouldn’t it just be easier for you to take all the credit and get this treasure if they ended up killing me?” she wondered, genuinely interested. Why would Ben want to keep her alive when he could get all the glory to himself?

She knew what the tiniest part of her - or at least the part that didn’t despise him- wanted to hear, “Because deep down I actually kind of care for you Rey.”. Maybe not the words “actually kind of” because that seemed a little backhanded. It was even hard enough to imagine him saying that. How about just “Because I care”. Or even better, “I don't believe in the horrible ideals of my boss and breaking old ladies hearts.”

Maybe that last one was a bit of a mouthful. Either way, she hoped he would say something that didn’t make her want to slap him. Then at least she could convince herself that the next few months of searching between them would be tolerable.

Because Rey was planning on accepting. Not because she believed the two of them needed to work together to get by, in fact she was surprised Ben was admitting to being lacking in anything if she considered his massive ego and previous arrogance. Actually, she doubted he even knew that he had just admitted some sort of defeat by saying he would need help.

She was planning on accepting for one reason only. For Leia. While it seemed like Ben had his own plan on how the partnership was going to work she could only see one way for it to go. Rey was going to save Ben and help Leia get her son back. It was the perfect way to reunite the family.

If Rey could convince Ben to join Resistance Treasures and come back home before the end of their mission it could be more than just a win for the company. It would be the chance to make the ungrateful bastard see how lucky he was for the lovely family he had. Then Resistance Treasures could take First Order Enterprises’ employee of the month AND the coveted treasure. Also, two against seven did have better odds.

Rey Niima had her own plan, and oh how she was going to succeed.

“I don’t want you to die Rey.” Ben said sincerely and softly, with a look in his eyes that could almost be mistaken for compassion.

All thoughts about her amazing plan went out of the window as her heart stopped and her mouth went dry. Shit. That was almost as good as what she had wanted him to say. She gaped at him like a fish.

Finally, she swallowed, “You don’t want me to die?”

“No.”

“Why?” she asked, hoping that she had managed to keep the pleading out of it.

He didn’t answer. The waiter saved him by placing the food down on the table, and it felt like that part of the conversation was left to go unanswered. They ate in a semi- comfortable silence for a little bit until she felt like they were going to be off to a rough start if they couldn’t keep up a conversation.

“Does your company know about this partnership? I can’t see why they would agree to it.”

He looked up from his food.

“No.” he said.

That surprised her even more.

“Why didn’t you tell them?” she tried to keep the worry out of her voice. It only made sense for him not to tell them for sinister reasons, what he said next could possibly dissuade her from agreeing.

“If I told them they would say I was working with the enemy. I like to see it as more of a collaborative effort for the benefit of everyone.”

Instantly she regretted doubting him. There was good left in Ben Solo, that much she could tell. That cesspit of a company hadn’t completely corrupted him. It meant that her plan really could work and she took a few seconds before she agreed, because she didn’t want to seem too eager of course.

He gave her a heart stopping smile, and Rey found herself returning it before she even knew what she was doing. It just felt… right.

For a moment, she was tempted to think that they were normal people on a normal date. But then the flying bullets and heated exchanges came back to her and she couldn’t do it. She just felt disappointed.

Rey tried to suppress the feeling for the rest of the dinner.

Finally, the waiter brought the check and Ben insisted on paying. Yet another thing she hadn’t expected from him.

They wandered back out onto the streets and the humid night air had her sweating in minutes.

If she were alone she probably would have done something stupid by now. Wandered down to the sea and jumped in clothes and all, but now she had a partner. A _partner._ The word felt so sweet on her tongue as she said it aloud, but also completely horrifying.

She barely even knew how to talk to Finn and Poe, let alone work with them 24/7. Her skin prickled with energy that drove all the fatigue of the day away from her bones. She couldn’t believe she was _so_ nervous. About Ben Solo of all things. The pompous asshole who – sure, showed up in her fairytale dreams sometimes and had secretly really hoped she would see again.

But that was the thing about dreams, she was allowed to wish about things without worrying about them ever becoming reality.

She looked back at him as the moon shone brightly in the sky. His hair still fell perfectly as she watched the rivulets of sweat drip down his face and disappear underneath the soft fabric of his black shirt. She had to stop herself before thinking of how that would look while he was underneath her.

Fuck, she needed to get a hold of herself or this partnership thing was never going to work. Maybe she just really needed to get laid.

“So.. have you been to Tangier before?” she said, trying to initiate some sort of conversation.

“I have actually, a long time ago. My dad took me once for a vacation because he loved it so much when he had come the previous summer for work.” he replied, almost fondly.

She tried to recall one of Han’s missions that had led him to Morocco, but to no avail. She assumed that it must have been back in bounty-hunting days. Rey fell back to walk beside him.

He began to fiddle with his shirt, speaking now with a type of anger. “I doubt you’ve met him. He’s probably hiding away in some beat up car garage in the middle of nowhere.”

Rey was confused. As far as she knew sometimes he visited a friend, Lando’s car garage with his massive dog Chewie after teaching a class. But he never hid away there. Unless he was giving Leia space after an argument. Judging by his tone she determined that it was best to not let on that she knew his family _very well._

Attempting to show some form of sympathy and understanding she gently patted his arm, trying to ignore the look of surprise he gave her as she did so. He quickly fell back into a solemn expression. Was he surprised about the fact that she had touched him? Or that she was offering any sort of comfort? Suddenly Rey wanted to know if anybody had actually done that for him before.

She tried to crack a joke at her own expense, sounding somewhat bitter to even her own ears as she did. “Hey at least you know where your dad is. Or at least that he’s even out there at all.” It didn’t land. Obviously.

“I wish I didn’t.” he said darkly.

Her skin bristled with anger. “You’re lucky you even have a father Ben.” Rey said.

He said nothing at first. That almost annoyed her even more.

“You’re right. I’m lucky I at least had someone growing up”. She hated the pity she could hear in his voice.” But being a poor excuse for a father doesn’t offer any consolation either.”

Now she didn’t know what to say. Her Han didn’t sound like what she was describing. _Her Han._ The man who was the closest thing to a father that she had ever had. Rey didn’t like where this conversation was going.

Somewhere deep down she also felt like she wanted to know more. But it didn’t feel like the night. Maybe when they were better acquainted.

When she came back out of her thinking she realized he was looking at her expectedly, and even with a little bit of concern. Gods, why did he have to do that?

“Sorry. I zone out sometimes.” she tapped her head. “Overthinking.”

He laughed a little. “No I get it. I overthink a lot.” he gave her a sly smile. “I guess that means we’re a great match already. We were destined to do this thing together.”

She shoved him slightly , feigning an expression of fake annoyance, and he laughed some more. Rey didn’t realize how much she liked the sound. Now all she had to do was make him do it again.

“Personally I think we’re a terrible match.” she said, wanting to hear what he would say if she provoked him.

“Yeah?” he asked, amusedly as he moved closer to her until their arms were touching. Then suddenly he stopped. She didn't.

“Wha-“

It felt like it almost came out of nowhere. His _large_ hand on her wrist. Pulling her back towards his chest. Moving them until her back hit a wall. She could feel _everything._

The hard brick rubbing against her jacket. The warmth radiating off of his hand and chest. It all happened so fast that she could barely catch her breath. And by the time she did she was looking up into amber eyes as he bent down to bring himself to face level with her.

His one arm caged her in as the other held onto her wrist. He did it gently, as if he didn’t want to hurt her.

“Why do you think we’re so terrible?” he asked her, smirking as if he was completely aware of how tense the entire situation was.

She could barely form her words properly. “ Well. Um. First off we fight a lot.” she looked down at the ground, unable to continue staring into that gorgeous warm amber.

“Secondly, we hate each other.”

“Look at me.” he said, dropping her wrist and bringing his hand under her chin to lift it back up. Rey didn’t know what he was doing, but she wasn’t going to let him get the upper hand.

She steeled herself and looked straight back at him. Leaning in a little bit closer.

“Third. I can’t stand you. You’re arrogant. Have the largest ego of anybody I’ve ever met.”

“Apparently. You kind of like that.”

Was it bad that she wanted to punch him in the face and kiss him until she forgot her own name?

“I’ve tried to basically kill you twice already.”

“Without success. Just add that onto the end there. Also, one of the times was with a literal butter knife, if that doesn’t say I’m threatening you just for the fun of it I don’t know what does.”

Rey scowled, but only momentarily. Then punched him in the arm with the bullet wound. He didn’t even wince, just closed his eyes. Fucking hell, she had gone and stuck herself with a masochist.

“Finally… I don’t trust you.” There. She had said it and gotten it out into the open. And so what if she didn’t trust him? He was enemy. If she wanted to keep her head on straight and get him back home safe and sound she needed to play her cards right and get in his head. Fight fire with fire.

“Well we can work on that can’t we?” he stepped back and the loss of his warmth even with the stifling heat was unbearable. “ _Partner”_ he winked.

Fucking winked at her. How many emotions did this man go through in a single minute?

Then he turned back around and continued down the way they were going just moments before.

She was going to murder him before this thing was over. That much was for sure.

Rey caught up to him again, this time staying a good distance away to avoid whatever the hell had just happened. At this point she could barely even decipher his personality.

“How did you start working for Resistance Treasures?” he asked her nonchalantly. As if he hadn’t just-

She wasn’t even going to bother trying to understand.

“I got referred by somebody out of university.” She was really hoping he didn’t know anything about Han being an Archeology professor a few years before he’d retired. “That’s how Leia initially hired me after I finished getting my degree in Archeology.”

He stiffened beside her. “You call your boss by her name?”

Shit.

“She says it’s a good way to foster a healthy work environment.” she lied quickly, hoping he didn’t catch on. Rey swore she could hear him grumble “Of course she said some stupid shit like that” under his breath.

He relaxed and she felt better knowing she was in the clear. “How did someone as young as you get a job so quickly?”

She rolled her eyes. It seemed to be a pretty hot topic among most of the people who had known her in university.

“How did Niima get a job with a top company so quickly? I would kill for even an internship or training course at Resistance Treasures.” Rey had overheard a few girls in the bathroom asking once. “Probably fucked a professor to get a reference.”

“Have you seen how close she is with Professor Solo?”

“It definitely wasn’t him. He acts like her dad. Unless she’s into that sort of thing.” she had almost thrown up hearing that one. Hanging around Han was a little awkward for a few weeks after that.

She couldn’t help but snap at him a little bit when she answered. “Is it that hard to believe that I was at the top of my class and had excellent grades which is why I got a reference?”

“No. Not surprising at all actually. You seem like the type.” he said sincerely. “Smart I mean.”

“Oh. Well thanks.”

“How did you get into this job?” she asked.

“I actually didn’t want to do it.” he chuckled darkly.

Rey couldn’t help cutting in. “What? But you’re amazing at your job. You literally just found the convict’s gold in Australia.” she said, thinking back to that utterly infuriating post on the plane.

He full on smiled at her as he teased. “Who’s the stalker now?”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “I like keeping track of the competition.”

“Oh… so that’s what they’re calling _stalking_ now.”

Rey pursed her lips and he just shook his head. Still smiling. He really needed to stop that. It was getting way too distracting.

“I always wanted to major in English actually. Maybe even old languages. I’m quite good at calligraphy.” Ben said thoughtfully.

Rey laughed. He wanted to be an English major? Big, tall, scary “Kylo Ren” wanted to be an English major?

“Go on then. Laugh. It's a good thing I’m a bounty hunter isn’t it. People don’t really think English major when they look at me.”

“No. No. I can see you as one” she said. And honestly Rey could. She could almost see it right now. Ben Solo with an ink pot and a calligraphy pen writing an essay about Jane Austen and feminism in literature as the cutest glasses fell off his aquiline nose. “I would actually love to see your calligraphy if you wouldn’t mind.”

“Really?” he sounded surprised. And she couldn’t see why. Rey wasn’t at all artistic but she had an appreciation for things that took time to learn.

“I’ll make sure to show you when we get back home.”

When we get back home? His words put a weird sort of feeling in her stomach. We and home didn’t belong in the same sentence if she didn’t manage to pull off her plan but she loved them together.

“I was actually helping my Professor at the time work on a thesis paper. It was because of what happened with it that led to me getting recruited by First Order Enterprises.” Ben said.

“What was it about?”

“Look. We’re here.” Ben pointed, almost too quickly to the large brick archway in front of them. The moonlight streamed through it, creating the most beautiful painting she could imagine. But Rey was stuck on how he had managed to dodge the question. There was definitely more to that than he was letting on.

The _pull_ tugged at her mind and from somewhere deep within her again. Much stronger than it had ever been before and Rey knew this must be the place.

“Alright. Let's split up and look around a little bit. See if anything looks out of place. “ she suggested.

“Wait. Let’s go through what we know. Then we can go around searching.” Rey was tempted to believe he didn’t want to part with her just yet. “This was where he died. The body was widely acknowledged to have disappeared because people stole it from here before the police could get to it.”

“I’m assuming that was due to the work of his cult following.” Rey was going to throw all her cards down regardless of whether he possessed the information beforehand or not. They were partners now, and she was true to her word.

He nodded. “We don’t have much else about what happened in between except for him killing a lot of people and a few diary entries of his life before he went off the rails.”

“Right. But we have a few diary entries. And since the information is of no use…” she trailed off.

“The common factor is the symbols. The ones he would carve into the bodies of his victims and were on the diary pages.” Ben was the higher-ups that the guy she had knocked out in Ireland had been keeping the folder on his desk for wasn’t he? That made a lot of sense.

“And the symbols on the diary page can only be seen when they’re put up to the light.”

They looked at each other then and it dawned on them. “The light!” Rey exclaimed excitedly. Damn their piecing together really had worked.

“Maybe we can only see the symbol he probably marked around here during the daytime.” Ben worked out. He pulled out his phone. “We have a few hours until first light. Let's try looking around first right now for a few hours in case we’re wrong. I just know that this is the place.”

She grinned, unable to keep the smile off of her face. “Me too. Let’s meet back here in a while okay?”

He nodded. Her heart almost melted at how excited he looked. They quickly broke off and Rey began scouring brick by brick trying not to leave a single one unscathed as Ben searched the other side of the archway.

Time passed and the moon began to fade as colour streaked the sky. She could feel her eyes drooping, knowing that she had searched over the same spot around fifty times at this point. Rey was glad of the fact that the time had passed somewhat quickly until that point but there was no way she was truly able to inspect every single brick.

A voice floated to her on the rapidly cooling breeze.

“Rey!” Ben called, and she felt her heart leap in her chest. On a list of the top ten things she thought she would hear in her life him calling her name was not one of them. It was now number one on her list of favourite songs she had ever heard.

“Rey?” he called again, sounding more concerned. She almost wanted him to come find her. Come find her and pick her up and then take her back to his hotel room and-

It was almost 6AM. It was not the time for those kinds of thoughts. She stumbled over to where he was, seeing him just as he looked like he was about to call out for her again.

“I’m here!” she answered before he could wake up any more of Tangier calling for her. Something she actually didn’t mind.

“Hey.” he said, looking happy to see her. “The sun’s about to come up. You stand on this side of the archway and I’ll stand on the other side.”

“Hopefully something comes up.”

“I believe in us enough to know it will.” he responded. Us? We? He was killing her. The whole partner thing was tough enough.

They stood on opposites of Bab Al Bahr and she watched as the sun began to rise behind him. Rey was going to try to pretend that the ethereal glow it cast didn’t add to his appeal. Key word being try.

She managed to pry her arms off of him and searched the archway. Looking for anything that stood out at all. It felt like they were stuck in that moment forever as the sun’s rays began to saturate the brick and the pinks, yellows, and purples of the sky began to get lighter.

And then finally she saw it. As the last interior bit of the archway became illuminated something glinted at the bottom. It was only brief but she felt a lurch in her chest as she saw it.

“Did you see that?” She called out to Ben trying to remain cognisant of the fact that people had already started populating the streets and Tangier was beginning to fill up with various spiced aromas and a bustling culture.

Rey didn’t wait for his answer as she saw it again. She rushed towards the inside of the archway and he did the same as she crouched down close to the bottom. He crouched beside her, blocking her activity from the outside world. As if he had read her mind and knew that the locals might not take too kindly to whatever they were going to have to do to get the clue.

She peered at the now still glinting brick and on it shone the familiar symbol of Vader. “Oh my God we found it.”

She looked around at the edges, seeing that they weren’t as firmly sealed with cement like everywhere else. Rey didn’t want to have to smash this in or deface a cultural landmark. So she did the sensible thing and jammed her knife in the side jostling it a little bit as she pulled.

Surprisingly it popped out pretty smoothly and she looked up at Ben, towering over her even crouched down. His expression was one of wonder and awe and she had to physically pinch herself to stop from reaching up to his face and kissing it off of him. They were going to fucking win this thing. Leia wasn’t screwed and neither was her job.

And neither was Ben Solo.

Rey was going to save it all. She was going to make things right and now she finally on track to do it. She was absolutely giddy with joy.

She put the brick aside and jammed her hand into the crevice. It scratched her hand roughly and she knew for sure some skin had been scraped off.

Her hand closed around something smooth and she pulled it out gently. She couldn’t feel anything else in there. Ben meanwhile picked up the brick and turned it over looking for anything else that could possibly be hidden there or on it.

Rey finally extricated the object completely and stood up looking at it. Ben stood up a few seconds later, presumably to put the brick back into its place.

She held a bone in her hands. A curved one that was also a little flat. She turned it over in her hands and found crude scratches on it.

“A clavicle bone.” Ben chimed in. She didn’t want to know how he knew exactly which bone it was. She brought it up closer to her face, reading what was etched into the surprisingly clean calcium.

“Lighthouse at Cape Spartel. Fifth Window.” she read aloud.

Suddenly she felt herself being picked up and Rey grabbed onto the first thing she could hold. Which happened to be Ben’s shoulders. His very broad shoulders.

He spun her around and she couldn’t help laughing as he looked at her like she was the single most amazing person he had ever seen. Rey almost dropped the bone in sheer surprise. After he noticed her getting a little dizzy he put her down.

Out of breath he didn’t waste the chance to tell her off. “What did I say. Told you we’d be amazing partners. We’re like Sherlock and Watson.”

“If you’re saying I’m Sherlock then yes we are.” she replied.

“Sweetheart you’re no Sherlock.” Ben chuckled and she felt like she was drowning in the sea just behind them. This had to be some type of damn fever dream.

“She scoffed at him. “As if you are.”

All he did was smirk. “I’ll see you tomorrow Rey.” he mused as he back away and she didn’t even realize he had still been holding onto her through all of that. And then he disappeared through the Gate of the Sea and she felt so much sadder than she had been a few seconds ago.

Rey found her way back to her hotel room alone, ready to absolutely pass out as soon as she saw her bed. She peeled off the dirty clothes and torn up wrap turned hand bandage and tossed them onto the bed, getting into the shower and wincing as she saw her hands.

The skin had been scratched off by the brick and on the other hand she had a deep gash in her wrist from where she had slid the knife back into her sleeve and miscalculated the angle. The water stung but she managed to clean them out.

Her legs shook as she processed the events of the day. Ben. People tried to kill me. Ben. Dinner. Ben. Clue. Ben.

She collapsed onto the bed. She about to pass out as the phone which had fallen out of her pocket buzzed. Rey just managed to flip it over to see the text on it as her eyes started dropping a ridiculous amount.

UNKNOWN NUMBER:

_Get some sleep._

_We have a long drive tomorrow._

_Partner ;)_

She was going to have to change his name in her phone.

Rey fell asleep with a smile on her face.


	13. Progress

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi lovelies!
> 
> Updates take a long time not his book because it takes me so much time to write their interactions as much as I love them. I never feel like i'm doing them enough justice! However, we're getting more into the more exciting locations now that they have their starting point. 
> 
> Let me know what you think, kudos and comments are much appreciated <3
> 
> July 10th message: Next update sometime this weekend

She couldn’t help being excited no matter how hard she tried because it was simply the truth.

Rey was very excited to see Ben Solo.

In the early hours of the morning he had sent a text which had sent her pitching herself halfway across the room from the comfort of her bed just to read it. It was a little crazy how much a simple “ _Good morning. Meet me outside your hotel at 8 and pack light :)”_ could throw her into a downwards spiral of: What should I wear? How light should I pack? Why outside _my_ hotel.

She almost felt like the idiotic teenager from the movies. Rey had never been the idiotic teenager from the movies. Every single crush she had ever had simply hadn’t warranted such a reaction from her but it seemed like there was just _something_ about the mortal enemy that was trying to ruin her life that hit different.

So when she was finally ready, Rey found herself dressing in one of her fancier flowy white tops and a pair of jeans, debating how she was going to strap so many knives down under a blouse that was slightly see-through. Especially when she had a bandaged arm from the wound she had caused specifically trying to put a knife back into place.

She dug around in her bag and pulled out a small pistol which she hadn’t armed herself with during the course of her journey so far. Weighing the weapon in her hands she contemplated how well it would fit into the back of her jeans, tucked behind her tank top. But then she realized would be suspicious to have a pistol shaped bulge jutting out from her ass.

Finally, she decided to forego about 80% of her weapons, tucking a single knife into the back of her jeans and hoping it wouldn’t stab her when she sat down. Packing light apparently meant packing stupid. She was praying Ben would be the one who brought the proper weapons.

She got down to the lobby and jogged quickly to the front doors, seeing a figure dressed all in black standing just outside of the large windows. She took her time admiring him for a few seconds. Was he wearing a leather jacket? Good lord, in this heat?

She was already sweating her ass off in the long sleeved yet _very_ breathable material. He probably grew up on another planet.

People gave her weird looks as they passed by her stopped in the middle of the lobby and she took that as her cue to get going. She made it outside and was welcomed by a blast of too humid air mingled with an overdose of air conditioning.

“Hey.”

“Hey” he replied with a small smile. “Sleep well?”

“Actually yeah, surprisingly.” she said, beginning to match his walking pace as they got a move on.

He chuckled as he gazed around as if searching for something. Damn him for his long legs making her work double time just to keep up with one of his strides. “I get that actually. I can never properly sleep during a mission. Or at all really.”

For some reason she felt a little out of breath as she answered, “Same. It’s the impending threat of someone coming to kill me that really does it for me.” she added.

He seemed to notice and slowed down considerably, leaving them both at the perfect pace for her.

“So pack light? What was that all about.” Rey questioned. “I left like three quarters of the armory back there because of you.” Shit. Rule number one: never let the enemy know your weakness.

“That’s okay partner.” he patted his leather jacket with a slight wince. I’ve got enough firepower for the both of us. Besides where we’re going it won’t do any good to scare people if they get too close.

Suspiciously his overuse of the word partner didn’t seem to set off any warning signs, but she wasn’t going to take chances thinking he was something he wasn't.

Large tour buses began to pass them by more frequently as they walked through the square to where a large group of people were standing.

“What’s this?” she asked somewhat suspiciously. If this was the line for a taxi, which she assumed they were using to get to Cape Spartel, it was way too long. “I think it might be better if we call one ourselves instead of waiting in this line.”

“Call what?” he asked, a little crease between his eyebrows becoming more pronounced. Cute.

She shook her head to drive the romantic thoughts away. “A taxi.”

Ben had the audacity to laugh at her. It was a logical thought! Wasn’t it? “Why in the world would you think we’re going by taxi?”

Now she was kind of annoyed. “How the hell else are we supposed to get there.”

“It’s a three hour drive Rey.” he explained, but she was finding it hard to focus because the way he said her name was just divine. “I took the liberty of buying us day trip tickets on one of those” he pointed to a tour bus which stopped beside them. “to get to the Cape.”

She was at a loss for words. Public transport with a tour company?

“People going on a day trip to Cape Spartel line up here!” called out a man with a thick accent.

She didn’t even have the chance to speak before he ushered her to the back of the line saying “That’s us.”

The two of them stood in silence as the line moved up and the smiling driver checked boarding tickets.

They waited a little bit longer, with their heads stubbornly turned in opposite direction of each other, but eyes lingering to check if the other was still next to them.

“Ah! Our last guests. Mr and Mrs. Solo I presume.” the driver said and Rey had half a mind to interject but Ben stiffened beside her and she quickly plastered a fake smile on her face.

Ben produced a printed booking from his jacket pocket and handed it over to the driver. The man looked down at the tickets before looking back up at the two of them with a large smile. “Welcome aboard.”

He checked something off on a checklist, but Rey couldn’t breathe because somehow during the entire exchange Ben’s arm had found its way around her shoulders. It was currently crushing her to his body. As if they were a real couple.

She was going to go into fucking cardiac arrest.

He was _so dead_ when they got on the bus.

A small squeeze from him forced her legs to move of their own accord and Rey was up the stairs and into the bus immediately. She felt slightly jostled around as the engine started up halfway through their walk down the aisle.

“Honey, there’s two seats back there.”

Scratch that. The man was going straight to the devil for all the hell he was putting her through.

She ungraciously dumped herself into the window seat, drawing her body as close to it as possible to accommodate _all of him_. Blast it, why did he always have to be so HUGE. “Take up some more space why don’t you, _honey_.”

“I cannot believe you’re fat shaming me right now.” he huffed.

She gaped at him, “Fat shaming? I wasn’t aware you had any fat on you.” looking him all over and maybe leering a little too much for her own comfort.

“So you think I’m shredded?” he asked, taking on a teasing tone with a slight tilt of his lips that made her feel like she had walked right into that one.

“No.” she laid a hand on his bicep. “Not at all.” She might have been copping a feel while doing it. He wouldn’t notice right? His eyes looked down at her hand. SHIT HE CAUGHT IT.

“You’re actually a whale!” she said somewhat defensively taking her hand off his arm (how she wished she could keep it there for a little longer) and gesturing to his legs which were pushed out and extended into the aisle.

He spread his legs a little more. Goodness he had to be doing it on purpose. She couldn’t think of any other explanation for this sort of horrendous behaviour. He was just trying to piss her off. Well she wasn’t going to fall into his trap.

“Do you have such a big dick that you need to take up both seats?” she asked sweetly, teeth gritted.

He leaned closer to her face. “Do you want to see it?”

An elderly woman in the seat across from them cleared her throat and gave them a glare. Gosh this was embarrassing. Rey mouthed a quick sorry and sat back, turning to him and giving him her own glare.

Ben laughed as she flipped him off and leaned against the window, grateful that she had left her hair down today. She could only imagine his reaction if he saw the ferocious blush that was coating her cheeks. “How long are we driving for?” she mumbled.

“Only around 30 minutes.” he replied. “I booked a private tour in case those guys who were tailing you got smart and thought the hop-on-hop-off would be a good way to find you, it’s the easiest option to get around. A little too public in my opinion. They could press a gun to our heads and tell us to get off and nobody would notice.”

“You thought ahead then.”

He scoffed, lowering his voice so until only the two of them could hear. “Of course I thought ahead. Can’t have you getting killed in the first five minutes of our mission. That’s why I decided against taxi as well. Too private. If they managed to tail us or find out which one we used they could kill us and nobody would know.”

She tried to ignore his use of _our._ It was _their_ mission now. Rey had never done a mission with somebody else before. It felt a little bit weird.

“Private tour was the best.” he continued. “Not too private and yet not too public. They’ll probably take us on a guided thing, so during that time I’ll slip away and find the windowsill under the guise of going to the bathroom. Then you come find me if I don’t get back to the group in time for the tour to end.”

She squirmed in her seat, finding that there was significantly more space than earlier due to Ben moving his legs completely into the aisle. “You know that they’ll notice if you’re gone for too long right? You’re a little hard to miss. It’ll make more sense if I go.”

“But you, sweetheart” he tapped the tip of her nose and she looked at him in shock. Did he just boop her nose? “Are the one that’s being hunted down. I can go wandering, but if you were to be picked off by yourself it’s game over.”

“Fine.” she conceded. “But also… Mr. and Mrs. Solo?”

“It’s a pseudonym Rey. I doubt they’ll be able to follow the paper or e-trail to figure out that we’re them.”

“Ben that’s not a pseudonym. It’s your real name and last name. Of course they’re going to fucking find us.” she berated him, almost losing grip on the whisper tones they had been using earlier.

He gave her a stony look that betrayed nothing. She regretted being the one to put that expression on his face. She always seemed to be doing it unconsciously. “That’s not my name.”

“You legally changed it?” she hissed, now furious. What would Leia do if she found out that he had changed his name to Kylo Ren. The pompous asshole obviously didn’t give a shit about how much he was breaking his poor mother’s heart. Who was basically her mother too! What ends would he go to just to say fuck you to his family?

She crossed her arms, almost vibrating with fury. “I can’t believe you.”

“I thought you knew.” he said back, and it was calm, but she could tell that there was palpable anger under it. “I mean it’s pretty obvious.”

“There is no way I’m calling you Kylo Ren. It sounds like something a fourth grader would come up with.” she said cruelly. A little bit crueller than she wanted to honestly. He seemed to react badly to that.

She wasn’t even looking at him, no, she couldn’t bring herself to do that. But she could tell it was taking a lot to keep himself together. Rey felt bad.

“It just… doesn’t suit you.” she said, trying to make it seem like an afterthought. “Ben Solo suits you…. Kylo Ren sounds too angry.”

She sighed. “You’re not angry around me, and I happen to really like your name” She liked the way it rolled off her tongue. Soft and sweet. To fit the image of what she saw in him at the end of last night. How was she supposed to call the man who had spun her around in the air by such an abrasive name?

Rey was bringing him home. When she did he was legally changing his name _back_ before they went to go see his parents. The light in him from last night wasn’t going to be snuffed out that easily, and it would be if she called him by his chosen name. Not happening.

He grumbled something that sounded vaguely like “If only you knew.” And she turned to look back out of the window. Electing to still not look at his face lest it be too much for her at once after their conversation.

The driver began to speak about various sights they were passing by and she followed them with her eyes. After what seemed like a very long pause he spoke again, quietly and contemplative, “You know, you’re the only one who calls me Ben anymore.”

“I can’t be the only one.” She grumbled. Rey knew she wasn’t the only one. Leia and Han still did. The people who mattered did.

“You are.”

“I’m not. It’s just impossible Ben. Besides, if I didn’t know that your name was legally changed then how is anyone else supposed to know? I just assumed that you were going by a pseudonym so that people didn’t figure out your real identity and harass you all the time.”

“Well you’re partly right. But I needed to get away from everything that was attached to my name.” she dug her fingernails into her palms. Everything attached was only love. “How did you even know my real name?”

“Leia told me” she answered immediately, without thinking. He grabbed her wrist and pulled with significant force and she turned to him. “Ow! What the hell are you-“ she struggled against him, trying to use her other hand to pull off the crushing grip.

“What else did _Leia_ tell you?”. It was back. The deadly calm in his voice that sounded like it was constantly suppressing some kind of beast.

She scowled at him, still actively trying to rip his massive hand off her possibly bruising wrist. Rey knew she had to regulate her words. “Just that your name was Ben Solo and you worked for our rivals First Order Enterprises. I told her that there was a strange guy that tried to kill me and gave her a general physical description. She did the rest.”

Maybe it was a little bit much, but she wanted to torture him slightly for the death grip that was cutting off her blood circulation. “You should have seen the way her eyes lit up when I described you. It clicked for her immediately.”

He dropped her wrist and looked at her in shock. Skin pale. She snatched her wrist back and began to rub it. Thankfully there was no bruising, just a bit higher and he would have been squeezing the life out of her knife wound.

His voice sounded so tiny, and she thought for a second he was seriously hurt. “Her eyes lit up?”

“Yea.. I mean.. I mean… I guess.” she stuttered. It was the truth, but she hadn’t expected that. Did he actually care then? Had she misjudged him? He looked off into the distance and didn’t press her any further. Was it possible that Ben Solo actually cared about his mother?

She sensed that the conversation was over, so she shifted positions and laid her head against the glass. The guide speaking into the microphone was loud, but if she closed her eyes she could almost feel herself dozing off.

The rattle of the bus on the road made her bang her head hard against the window. “Fuck.”

A hand encircled her head, blocking her view and brought her to rest against a shoulder. “There’s no point of me booking a private tour if you’re going to split your head open on the glass.” he said warmly.

Ben whispered in her ear, warm breath hitting her and making her shiver slightly. “We’re supposed to be a couple Rey.”

He then grabbed her arm and looped it around his so she was now holding onto his arm as she laid against him. Rey would be lying if it wasn’t the most comfortable position _ever._ Even more comfortable than the softest bed. She was asleep, curled against him in seconds.

…………..

His bad arm hurt from all the smashing of objects he had done last night. The broken vases and battered TV remote could attest to that. But for the first time _ever_ he had smashed all of those things as a way to curb a mix of excitement _and_ anger.

Kylo couldn’t come up with a straight reason as to why he was flirting with her. Or even why he felt like he was going through a complete personality transformation. But the brunette beside him had to have something to do with it, and that really pissed him off.

But even if he got mad every time he ended up acting like a love sick idiot he continued to do it. It’s like his brain _wanted_ him to fail at life. The worst part was that she was reacting. It just made him want to do it even more. Was it possible to be so annoyed and so elated at the same time?

What the fuck was wrong with him?

He was the kind of guy that got angry very easily. He smashed things, broke bones, and was known for his general bad temper. Hell, he had seen red when he had initially heard she was assigned to the same mission.

Kylo didn’t feel like that guy when he was around her. Why did it feel like he could be somebody else entirely as well when she was with him? He was using her, and still he felt bad about it. He never felt bad about that kind of shit. It was just his job. His personality.

So then what was it about Rey Niima that made him want to be different when he spent time with her? What was it about the idea of her that made him second guess everything he would usually do? She didn’t even call him by his damn name.

It twisted him upside down and inside out. And as she lay curled up against him with a smile on her face he felt his heart practically fall out of his chest. She put him through about fifteen different emotions in a span of five minutes. He was convinced it was borderline unhealthy.

They only had a few minutes left before the bus pulled up at Cape Spartel, but he was more concerned about her. If her head was comfortable laying on him. What she was dreaming about. If she usually smiled when she slept.

It felt like a never ending cycle of finding something new about their position for him to fuss over. As the bus rolled to a stop he almost wanted to scold the driver for the fact that he was about to usher them off the bus and then the moment would be lost forever. He didn’t want to wake her. But then the bus pitched forward a little bit and she woke with a start.

Kylo was grateful that he didn’t have to be the one to ruin her nap. 

He watched her rub her eyes and stretch a little bit. “Are we here yet?” she asked.

For some reason he couldn’t stand to look at her anymore so he just uttered a “Yes” and started walking down the aisle.

The humidity hit him again as he stepped outside and he suddenly regretted the leather jacket. Unfortunately there had been no other way to hide the gun. He followed the guide as he began to lead them around, taking in the sights a little bit.

The stretch of the blue water and the obvious colour difference between where the two seas met-

“Thanks for waiting asshole.”

And then she punched him. In the arm. His bad arm.

“Rey, what the fuck.” he hissed in pain. Kylo was more surprised that he had even really felt it.

“Next time don’t leave me behind. I thought you were starting the plan without saying goodbye.”

“Well now I am. Goodbye.” he said, rubbing his injured arm. Then he left the group, just hearing Rey make excuses for him as he marched off in the direction of the lighthouse.

The weathered yellow building was surrounded by palm trees and radiant greenery. A few people entered and exited through a large doorway and he followed them in.

Kylo kept close to the crowds and thrush of people to see where they were going, noticing how many of them just milled around in the same place. He slipped into a hallway to his right, electing to check all the windows of the first floor before checking if he could even get access to the upper levels.

Things were going to get a little bit messy if he had to.

First he examined the row of windows dotting the corridor, checking the sills for the familiar etchings. A symbol like that wouldn't be too hard to scratch into wood. Especially not wood as old as this.

Stupid pencil markings from kids who obviously thought it was cool to deface cultural monuments came up every once in a while. But nothing that looked like Darth Vader’s symbol.

He moved to the next set.

Once again there was nothing.

Another. Nothing.

He only had one set left before he would have to go investigate upstairs. He really didn’t want to have to make a scene. It wasn’t the right time of the day.

He moved from one window to the next. Three passed and he was losing hope. And then finally.. there it was.

The last window had the smallest etching in the corner of the wood. It was exactly what he needed. Kylo grabbed a knife tucked into his jacket pocket and used it as a lever. The wood didn’t budge. He applied more pressure, putting more weight into it and hoping that it didn’t splinter.

“Hey!”

He thought fast, quickly sliding the knife back into his jacket and thankful for them being so deep set. At least the person probably didn’t see what he was doing.

He leaned on his palms, as if he was gazing out of the window into the underbrush.

“Hey! Sir?” called a feminine voice again, and he steadied his breathing for a minute. Kylo was ready to put on a show.

He popped his head out. “Hi! I’m sorry, is this section off limits? Because if it is I can go.”

“No, I actually don’t know if it is or not. I was just wondering if you knew which way I can use to get to the exit. I’m a little bit lost honestly.”

He smiled, although secretly wondering if it was a trap. The exit was just around another two corners, and relatively easy to find from what he had gathered. “Just around there.” he pointed.

“It’s a gorgeous view isn’t it?” the girl asked.

“Yeah” he ran his hand through his hair, a little confused as to why she was sticking around. “I think the sea is more stunning though.”

“Isn’t it-“

“Ben.” came a more familiar voice, which they both turned towards. He looked past the girl in front of him to see Rey, looking somewhat stormy herself. A look he thought he had never imagined to see on her face.

It was pretty amusing. But there was no time for that. Rey being there meant that the group was going to leave soon, which meant he had to get whatever was in the windowsill. Right now.

“Hey Rey.”

“Oh.. you two know each other?” the random girl asked and he shot her a very confuddled look.

“Yeah, that’s my… um.. wife.” He had almost slipped up.

“It was nice meeting you.” the girl said hurriedly, and dashed around the corner without even a second glance back.

“So. Did you get it?” asked Rey. Damn, she even sounded kind of angry. He couldn’t tell what he had done though.

“Not yet. I was just about to when she interrupted me.”

“I’ll cover then.” she said, leaning against the wall and trying to look nonchalant. He was definitely a better actor than her. It was a good thing to keep in mind.

Meanwhile, Kylo went back to prying the sill open, bearing more weight down onto it when he heard some audible cracks.

He really fucking hoped he hadn’t just ruined the sill. A piece of wood large enough to fit a small hand popped open and he peered into the hole. Just below it lay some more pieces of paper, looking like they had been stuffed into the crevice in a hurry.

“I need you to reach in there and grab it.”

Rey looked over, sighing before sticking her hand in carefully and extracting the loose sheets of paper.

“Come on. We’re seriously late.” she said, as he watched her tuck them into the blouse of her shirt. He couldn’t help but watch her movements. Maybe just a little too closely. She looked back up at him and rolled her eyes before grabbing his hand and dragging him along.

Yeah she was angry. But about what?

“What’s up with you?”

“I’ll tell you when we get back on the bus” she said curtly. He was hyper-focused on the feeling of her hand in his. It seemed like it was meant to be there. Like it had been expertly crafted just to fit so perfectly. Had she noticed that too?

As if she had read his mind she dropped his hand suddenly, opting to beckon him along as they exited into the sun again. He almost regretted not having been able to watch the sea clash with her. It must have been beautiful.

They jogged back to the bus, entering just as they started up the engine again and seeing that everybody was already on. The old lady from earlier gave them another pointed glare as they made their way to the back and to their seats.

As they settled back in he noticed that her demeanor was off. She was leaning against the window again and looking relatively closed off.

“What’s wrong Rey?” he questioned, more insistent this time because he was genuinely concerned.

She sighed, rolling her head away from the window and into the headrest. “It was just boring standing out there in the sun while you were inside. I don’t like being on the sidelines of my own missions. Kind of defeats the purpose of my entire use.”

“We don’t have to do that again if you don’t want to then.”

“No, no. I get it. It’s not always safe to operate together, but we ended up doing it in the end anyways because you didn't get out early.” she fanned herself as she spoke and closed her eyes. “It’s whatever, just wake me up when we get to the next stop. It’s not safe to read the documents out in the open here.”

This time he didn’t touch her. It felt like she was only telling him the half-truth. But somewhere deep down he wanted to tell her he would have enjoyed it all so much more if she had been beside him.

Now that he had a taste of what it felt like to work together with her… he wasn’t sure he could really go back.

In his defence, Kylo really had wanted to look at the view with her.


	14. Brazil [Part 1]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! Summer school came around and it took me ages to finish this because I kept adding more scenes of them vibing instead of advancing actual plot, so I didn't end up getting to the place that I wanted to be (I understand this is pretty filler). I'm planning on getting part 2 up for where I actually wanted this to end in a couple of days. I love writing how up and down they are since they're still in the beginning stages where they're both fighting between what they should be feeling for each other. 
> 
> Lots of love to all of you! Stay safe <3 and let me know how i'm doing.
> 
> Note from August 12: I'm currently dealing with some family problems :( Can't tell when i'll be back but hopefully sometime before the end of the month!

They were booked on a flight to Brazil the next morning before they knew it. It had only taken a few minutes of reading Darth Vader’s diary entry for them run back to their respective hotels to pack things up. Ben had almost run away a little too quickly for Rey’s liking, turning stony faced when they had finally settled down to read the diary entry together and looking thoroughly disgusted with its contents.

He paid for room damages and redressed his wounds. She bandaged her wrists and separated her stuff from suitcase to carry on. Each of them carried out various tasks, printing and organizing and planning ahead.

They met in the middle just hours later and blazed through customs just to get to their gate early to plot things out.

“Let me look this over again. A few articles of open clothing and hats?” she asked.

“Check.”

“Diary entries. Pen. Paper.”

“Check.”

“Compass and map.”

“Check.”

She lowered her voice a little, trying to be discreet. If anything, Rey didn’t want to end up giving the old lady beside them a heart attack when she found out they were armed to the teeth. “Knives?”

He rolled his eyes at her, as if she was being ridiculous for taking a precaution. It took everything in her to repress the glare she wanted to throw at him. Ben be damned, she wasn’t going to be responsible for murdering the elderly. “Check.”

Rey took in his face as he looked at her intently. She took note of the slight blush across his cheekbones and just under his eyes. The telltale sign of unfortunately sun-kissed skin.

“Sunscreen?” she asked in a teasing voice and he scowled back at her before pretending to focus his attention on anything else in the room. She had only noticed it under the bright lights of the airport, but it was evident as anything. A few hours in a sun just that morning that burnt his face and put him in a state where he looked like he was perpetually blushing. Rey would be lying if she didn’t think it was attractive.

He noticed her amused face and snapped back, reminding her of a child as he did so. “It’s not my fault that I burn easily.”

“No, I suppose it isn’t your fault that you have the complexion of a ghost.”

“Piss off. Get back to the checklist Niima. We have a job to do.” he grumbled.

Now it was her turn to roll her eyes. “I didn’t know that burn victims were so testy.”

Ben gave her a sarcastic smile “Cute.”

“Thanks. I know I am.” she responded without missing a beat. Rey had no idea where the sudden confidence had come from, but the way his eyes had widened at the man he had been aimlessly looking at across from him was enough of a reaction for her to convince herself. She was so doing that again.

She found herself imagining what other things she could do to surprise him. To intrigue him. To see if there was more of the sweet man whom she had explored Bab Al Bahr with. Her other mission was of just as equal importance as this one. At least it ensured a double win on her part: saving her job and bringing Ben back home.

But in this moment they had a job to do, and she couldn’t lie and say she wasn’t excited that the quest was finally picking up.

She jumped right back into it. “Rain and hiking gear.”

“Got it.

“Water bottles and extras?”

“We done yet?”

“Not quite.”

“Guns.”

He didn’t even take a second to think before responding. “We’re not taking them with us.” he said stubbornly, and in a tone that told her he was completely dismissive of the need for extra protection.

She pushed back. They needed guns just in case those men who were tracking her down came back. How were they supposed to protect themselves with just a bundle of knives? Sure, she could throw her knives exceptionally well, but she could aim a gun even better. On top of that they were only really good for short range.

Leaving them behind in their suitcases which they were planning on ditching at the airport storage while they took just their carry-ons with them was ridiculous. The fact that they would be virtually unarmed in case of a confrontation out there or even into trouble was just pure idiocy.

“Why not Ben?” she asked, unnecessarily aggressive. That just wasn’t how she operated after Bali, and if he wasn’t going to give her a good reason she was going to disregard him anyways.

He stiffened a little bit before relaxing again, making it known that he still bristled at her calling him by his given name. She couldn’t give less of a fuck. He rounded on her in his chair, giving her a pointed and hard look.

“Firstly, it’s too heavy and too much to carry along with ammunition in our daypacks. Secondly, we need to convince one of the villagers to take us into the Amazon. Secondly, those people will bolt if they even see a gun on us and you want us to bring them to do what? Scare them into helping us?”

“They’re not what I’m worried about.” she said tightly, trying not to give off the impression that she was scared for herself. It was something she had been trying and thankfully succeeding at for the past few days. Rey had been chased around, kidnapped, and even beat up, but she had never stared down the barrel of a gun before. Especially not from the gun of seven massive men in masks who looked like they were hitmen for hire.

“You don’t have to be worried about anything Rey.” he said, tone changing into one more assuring and serious. “Nobody is going to get to you while I’m by your side.”

Her heart melted a little bit. “I don’t need you to save me from anybody Ben.” she said, suddenly much quieter. “But thank you.”

“I know you don’t need saving Rey. I’ve seen you hold your own against me way too many times. But you need me because we’re partners, and as long as we’re working together I’ll protect you just as I expect and _know_ you can protect me.” Ben said softly, giving her hand a slight squeeze.

Her heart jumped in her chest. Was it normal to not jump at the throat of your sworn enemy even though you had just come to a truce around two days ago? She had expected it to take a long time for them to get on good terms, but it seemed like he was willing to commit to a healthy work relationship as easily as he walked.

She knew she couldn’t trust him and his sweet words, but it was hard when his massive hand was still covering hers and he was treating her like she was his equal. Not many people did that. Maybe they didn’t have to be enemies all the time…

He retracted his hand as if he had been burnt just a few seconds later. “Anyways Niima you’re much too stubborn to die.”

Stinging a little from how hastily he had pulled his hand back and his mocking tone she retorted with a little more vigour than she intended. “Yes, well you should know considering you’ve already tried once to actively murder me.”

His eyes hardened and the old lady beside them gasped. So much for not trying to give her a heart attack. “I don’t know why I even try being nice to you. ”

“Don’t act as if you’re all rainbows and sunshine either.”

“At least I don’t pretend that I am like you.”

She balled up her hands into fists, gritting her teeth. “I’m not pretending about anything.”

He practically scoffed at her. “Keep telling yourself that. I can see right through you.” 

“You can’t see shit Solo. Don’t act like you know a single thing about me alright? Last time I checked we’re working together, for reasons that seem less and less reasonable by the minute by the way.” Why was it that they could go from sweet to sour so quickly?

“Fuck off, you agreed to this entire thing so don’t try and pin it all on me. If this wasn’t the easiest way for me I wouldn’t be sitting even a hundred feet in proximity to you.” he shook his head, crossing his arms and staring at off an advertisement for beauty cream like he had a personal vendetta against it.

Fucking Americans and their imperial system of measurement. She didn’t even know how much that was but it still hurt. It hurt way more than it should have. Rey almost wanted to cry.

They would always be enemies, and that fact would always be shoved into her face.

Rey was just going to have to take the small pieces of kindness he gave her with a grain of salt and remember that even if she convinced him to come back home this is how they would always be. At each other’s throats until it was more than just empty yelling.

Besides, he was a heartbreaker. It hadn’t started with hers. She had given a piece of it to him within a few minutes of meeting him like a foolish love struck teenager regardless of his initial arrogance because she had thought he was good. Of course he had proved her wrong, and then continued to do so when she learnt about the trail of many others he had left in his wake.

They didn’t speak to each other for the next few hours after that, and neither of them caught the others slight glances to check up every few minutes. But when their gate was finally called and they walked to their seats together without saying a word, and she knew that they hadn’t ruined everything yet.

The two of them had a long ways to go.

………

As they waited at the baggage arrival for their suitcases to put onto their next transfer flight Rey decided that she would have to be the bigger person. Ben had remained stony faced and angry for the majority of the portion of the flight she had been awake for. But when she had woken right before landing at a stopover in Amsterdam to find a blanket draped, albeit badly and somewhat carelessly across her she knew there was only one person who could have done it.

That had to mean she wasn’t so horrible to be around, and he wasn’t so heartless that he would leave her to suffer the cold. But it also didn’t mean that he was up for apologizing for what he said to her apparently. Rey didn’t particularly want to spend the rest of the many hours they had ahead of them in some sort of standoff when they could be planning routes and choices they could make.

She reached up to tap him on the shoulder as he once again ignored her and gazed out into the sea of people. Rey quickly turned her attention to them as well to avoid seeing the intent stare that he always gave her. All she had to do was get this over and done with quickly so they could go back to being cordial because truthfully she missed chill Ben who was much easier to talk to and she could actually bear being around.

“Since I know you’re probably not going to say this first… I’m sorry alright?”

He didn’t answer.

“I shouldn’t have picked a fight with you. I recognize that it’s much easier for us to work together if we’re both at least cordial and- ”

He cut her off and she elected to just shut her mouth this time instead of berating him for being a prick who wouldn’t even let her finish her own sentences. “I have no idea why you did it, but I forgive you. For what it’s worth I didn’t exactly react very well to it either so I’m sorry as well. I guess we’re going to have to work on not riling each other up just because.”

“It’s not easy.” She chuckled.

“It definitely isn’t. But maybe once we get to know each other more it’ll get easier.” he said.

He hadn’t looked at her once throughout the entire exchange, and she had noticed. It was never just going to be easy with him was it? Somehow she appreciated the challenge.

“Look there’s our bags.” He pointed out two small suitcases coming around the conveyor belt. They gathered them up and were off, moving fast up until they got back into the airplane and got on their way to Paris. Their second stopover before Rio de Janiero.

They fell into a comfortable rhythm that wasn’t as strained as it was before and sat in a good kind of silence. The same happened when they got onto the final leg of their journey, headed straight across the Atlantic.

At some point they even traded food, Rey voicing her opinions on how the dinner rolls they served were absolutely disgusting and Ben telling her that she was very wrong. She had immediately forked hers over without hesitation and he had accepted it without any objection.

When Rey peered down at her finished dessert tray and wishing there was more he had slid his own over to her, voicing his exceptionally horrifying opinion that dessert wasn’t good and she could have his.

All of her two second long, dream fantasies of them eating cake together were subsequently smashed to bits in that moment, but she found that she didn’t really care because anybody willing to share their sweets with her were automatically in her good books. For him, however, a scale had to be made, and he was slowly creeping his way up out of the black side of the spectrum into morally grey territory.

The thought both terrified her and excited her. It had only been a few days. What would she do when she completely stopped thinking of him as her foe?

………………

They touched down on the tarmac with a steady bump and the plane gradually ground to a smooth stop. It did nothing to calm the way her heart was racing. After staying awake in what she had thought was a fit of rage over their earlier disagreement on the first leg of their flight from Tangier to Amsterdam Ben had finally fallen asleep.

One would usually think that simply the act of seeing somebody asleep wouldn’t cause such intense feelings, but that was not the case with Rey. He looked more peaceful than he ever had in his life, wrinkles smoothed and face relaxed in a way she wished she could see it more often. His messy hair had fallen across his forehead and she had the urge to push back the soft looking curl as it rested gently on his face.

It was the type of face anybody would want to wake up next to. The type that made their heart surge in their chest when they gazed upon it. One that provoked a need to protect and care for the person with all their being.

He fingertips lightly hovered over the hard planes of his face, itching to reach out and cup his cheek.

He woke up with a start and she snatched her hand back fast as lightning. She dearly hoped that he hadn’t seen it lingering there in the first place, but he didn’t seem to notice as he sat up and ran his hand through his hair, returning the curl to its natural position.

She relaxed from her tense position, one she had realized had made her bundle against the wall of the plane in fear of being found out.

He looked over at her and she realized how much younger he seemed now that he had actually gotten rest.

“So when were you going to wake me up?” he asked, voice deep and husky from sleep. Fuck, she wanted to drown in that sound.

She almost couldn’t find the words. “I- um, soon.”

He tilted his head thoughtfully, as if analyzing her and she suddenly felt like he was looking right through her. She shifted uncomfortably, crossing her arms under her gaze before he looked out into the aisle.

Rey hadn’t liked the way he had scanned her at all.

“C’mon. We better get to the city for something to eat before we check in.” he said while moving to take their carry-ons down from the overheard compartment.

She moved quickly in response, gathering up their different belongings and pushing into the aisle and eventually out of the plane after him.

“We booked at the same hotel?”

“Yeah, I forwarded my team the name and asked for them to take of things for me.” she responded, still bristling over the way his eyes had swept over her. As if he had seen _everything._ Nobody had ever looked at her like that before.

“Great. Now at least we don’t have to go to different places to meet up.” he plowed forward, seemingly uninterested or not noticing the awkward way she was carrying herself behind him.

They traded belongings and headed down to baggage claim, only just noticing how many people were crammed into the one space. She stood on the tips of her toes, trying to peer over the heads in front of her. Honestly, she was annoyed considering the fact that she wasn’t a particularly short woman to begin with.

He chuckled beside her and she shot him a glare. “What’s so funny Ben?” she sighed.

They stood there looking at each other for a few seconds, a weird type of energy pulsing between them. He didn’t answer her, instead opting to give her a small grin before plowing forward and almost taking out a whole group of people with his sheer size.

She just watched as he disappeared within the crowd, only to reappear minutes later with their luggage in hand. He handed hers off to her with a quiet “here” and then started walking in the direction of customer help desk.

“I could have done that myself” she mumbled, more to herself than anybody else. It wasn’t like he could hear her anyways.

She felt like she was trailing after him like some sort of lost puppy, and while it felt nice to have somebody else to be there and take care of stuff so she could relax, she also hated it. She had felt the same kind of disconnect when she had spotted Ben and that woman talking in the hall. That and she might have been just a _tiny_ bit jealous.

He had looked more relaxed with her and Rey realized that her presence probably put him on edge. For understandable reasons of course, but that didn’t stop her from wanting him to feel comfortable around her. They were going to probably spend a lot of time together anyways.

It was still early in their partnership to already feel inferior in some sort of way to him but she couldn’t help it. The innate need to show him that she could do anything he could do but better was just clawing at her.

As she stood there just staring at her suitcase he returned again, catching her off guard with his nearness.

“Are you alright? You’ve been acting weird since we got off the plane.”

“I’m fine.” she lied, already regretting the fact that she hadn’t just come out with it to get him to back off from taking charge of everything.

“Okay…. I found out where to put drop the suitcases so we can grab them when we get back to the airport.” he tilted his head to the right slightly again and she looked away. “How about we go see if there’s a rental car available? It might be easier to just get around ourselves if there’s a remote village we have to go to.”

“I’ll do it.” she blurted out almost instantly and he nodded his head, as if taking her in completely.

“I was hoping you would.” he said, giving her a grateful look as he scratched his head shyly. “I’m not that great with people. I was struggling just now talking to the customer help desk rep. Besides I’m sure you know more about rentals and all than me, I’ve never really had any experience with them.” he said, not unkindly.

And just like that he had put them on equal ground again. Yes. That was right. They both had their strengths and weaknesses. There was no reason to feel inferior about anything at all.

With a renewed sense of confidence she thrust her bags into his hands and strode over to the cars, entrusting him to carry them safely to the lockers.

………

“Why the fuck did you pick a jeep.”

“Because jeeps are great for off road and they’re much cheaper than the shiny sports cars. Also, it has a 3.6L V6 engine, one of the most reliable ones on the market.” she said, pointing to the bright red and sleek looking car beside them, trying to be somewhat accommodating but feeling her temper start to rise.

“Well I could have paid for it if money was the problem.”

“You know you sound like a pretentious asshole right now right?”

“Pretentious? No. An asshole. Maybe. But that doesn’t negate the fact that I’m not driving around in that thing.”

“Well okay Mr. I Only Drive Around Expensive Cars, how about you go in there and ask for that one instead.” she sniped, nodding her chin to the next car over.

He growled at her, “You know I can’t do that. And besides that thing is a death trap. I’m not going to be sent to an early grave because you picked a fucking jeep.”

“And how exactly are we supposed to go through backroads and all sorts of underbrush in a Ferrari? Since that’s obviously what you’re getting at for a car that isn’t a death trap.”

“I never said it needed to be fancy or expensive, just that it should be anything other than a jeep.”

“Ben you didn’t necessarily specify that you had a taboo list of cars. I wasn’t aware that First Order Enterprises spoiled it’s employees so much that they started to think that other models didn’t exist.” she sneered at him, as he glowered at her with a look that said if she forced him he was going to raise all seven hells.

But Rey wasn’t going to back down. It had taken her an hour to even find a car available for rental in the first place that would be good for any sort of work. And now her back was hurting and she was tired of standing. So they stayed there glaring for a little while before he conceded.

“Fine.” he ground out, stalking over to her as she dangled the keys in her hand, swinging them around in a circle.

Ben moved to grab them from her hand but she pulled back. “I rented it. I drive it.”

He pushed past her and slammed the door to the car shut after he got in. She simply walked over to the driver’s side and did the same, giving him a pointed look that earned her one that was severely unimpressed.

As she put the keys into the ignition though she noticed out of the corner of her eye how tightly he was holding onto the rest on the car door, knuckles white and clenching.

She had thought he was just making excuses because he wanted to drive around in luxury or style as he was surely used to, but was he actually scared? Was that what had he meant by it being a death trap? Immediately Rey felt bad for pushing it, and why had he even put up with it in the first place?

She had been an insensitive idiot hadn’t she?

Immediately she found herself placing her hand over his closest hand to her, squeezing tightly. “You know I’m not going to let anything happen to us right?”

She could just hear the slight release of the breath he had been holding, but he didn’t say anything so she continued. “This car is perfectly safe and I’m an excellent driver. I’ll have you know that I passed my driver’s test on my first try when I was 16 and got full marks in every category. I’ve been officially deemed safest driver on the road.” she said, half cracking a joke.

He smiled in response. She only _just_ caught the telltale unsteady twitch.

She halted, debating whether or not to take the extra step. It couldn’t hurt could it? If he was truly that scared?

She didn’t pause for a second longer as she glanced down and interlaced their hands before looking up at him to gauge his reaction. But he was looking back at her already. For a second she swore she could see awe in his eyes.

“Think about it.. with this car we’re like Indiana Jones in real life.”

He scoffed, looking out the window and muttering under his breath. “I hate that movie.”

“I’m going to pretend that you didn’t just say that.” she countered, ruffling around in her carry-on before tossing it in the back. Rey threw a pair of sunglasses on, flicking them down in a way that she hoped made her look cool.

“And now I’ve got the look for it too.” she said, smiling at him.

“You’re missing the hat.”

“Don’t be such a buzzkill.” she quipped in a playful way. Rey was hyper aware of the fact that their fingers were still entangled with each other. So she unlaced them and kept her hand on his thigh beside his.

It stayed there as she started up the engine and eventually began to turn out of the lot. As they drove out into the roads and started on their way to the city. Their fingers so close that she could almost feel his reaching to take hers again.

Just a little further and she could feel the way his hand closed over her like it was always meant to.

And then out of nowhere a corner came up and she immediately drew her hand from his thigh to its place on the wheel. She just narrowly missed t-boning another car. Shit, the hormones were getting to her.

She tried not to seem affected as she let out a steady breath, just noticing his hand reaching up to turn on the radio, beautiful and vibrant music filling the car.

They sat in silence, taking in the sunshine and the lively music as they sped down the highway. She felt a smile start to take over her face.

It only got bigger when she realized he had stopped clutching the car door and instead was drumming along to the beat on this thigh.

Rio de Janiero had not been any different from what Rey had always imagined it would be. The warm air mingled with vibrant colours and culture filled the car immediately and she could already tell it would be one of her favourite locations.

But there wasn’t enough time to fully appreciate the first views of the city as she felt the fatigue and soreness from sitting for hours catching up to her. That and the fact that the last flight had been a commercial jet that smelt like it had been left out in the rain.

When she shifted in her seat for the fifth time within ten minutes, Ben leaned over to her and frowned. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know how anyone sits around in a tour bus or a car all day for their vacations. I need to be running around and active. The entire point is to explore a new country and get to know the people, the food, you know- like become a part of it while you’re there. Also, I don’t know how you put up with those seats, my legs were jammed up into myself for hours.”

“It’s the pains of being tall.” He wasn’t any more comfortable than she was, but he was definitely putting up with it better than her for being the one with the actual height.

“Next time I think we should fly first class or take an overnight train.” she muttered, shifting around once again and almost swerving off the highway as she did so.

“I’ll take note of that, but that kind of stuff is only really good for Europe.”

“Well then I really hope we’re going to Europe next.”

Ben had taken out their map of the city, freshly acquired from the airport, and was flipping through it, seemingly finished with their conversation. “Do you want to see if we can drop off the car with valet before we head out for something to eat?”

“Please. I’m not sure how much longer I can take of having to get back into this thing.”

The car had begun to heat up as the sun rose and already she could feel the sweat dripping down her neck. Opening the window to feel some sort of breeze didn’t seem to aid her in any way, instead pushing in more of the heat so when she closed it she felt sealed into a steam box.

Ben on the other hand, didn’t seem to notice how humid it was getting, marking down places on the map with ease and referring to his phone for details.

“How are you not dying?”

“Good humidity and heat tolerance, I just got back from Australia before I started this thing so I’ve gotten somewhat acclimatized”

“I know.” she said without hesitation, waving off the statement and not realizing the implication of her words. “But you seemed pretty fazed by it in Tangier.”

“ _You know?_ ” he asked, suddenly very focused on her. The questioning weight of his eyes made her feel unsteady, and suddenly she realized . She gripped the steering wheel, suddenly staring out onto the opening road in front of her as if she was scared if she didn’t hyper focus she would kill them.

“Niima! Do you happen to be a fan of mine?”

God, she did not want to see the way he was probably looking at her right now. Or maybe she did.

It was definitely revenge for the sunscreen. She knew she shouldn’t have teased him earlier. Next time she had to remind herself to keep it in check. 

“I’m not a fan of yours. I just like to stay updated on my competition.”

“Oh, so I’m _your_ competition now?”

She blushed, running through a million ways to backtrack. Damn it he had caught her again. “You’re not _my_ competition. But what you stand for is competition for our company.”

“I don't think that’s what you meant. See competition between the two of us implies that we are equal to each other, and you actively try your hardest to keep up with me so you can one up me. You should have let me know earlier, we could have compared finds and placed bets while we were at it.”

She just knew he had winked at the end of that one. Rey wasn’t sure her heart could have taken that.

“I don't want to compare _anything_ with you Ben. You can’t tell me that you haven’t been keeping up with all my finds to see if Resistance Treasures will finally take you guys down and get something that will guarantee that we go down in history. You’ll never be able to silence us after that.”

“Darling, we already _own_ history. I know your boss has probably gone over all of it with you, how far our reach is and everything. So no, I don’t keep up with any of your finds, because I know that you will never beat us.” he said, the light and teasing tone turning into something she didn’t particularly like.

She could pretend that the fact that he didn’t care about what she was doing didn’t hurt, but she didn’t want to lie to herself right now. “You forget that whatever parts you don’t own, _we_ own. Don’t think I don’t know how many of the others you took down before you finally landed on us. Hell, my entire team is made up of people from companies yours collapsed. But Leia isn’t scared of you.”

She had said her name because she knew he would flinch, it was a low blow, but in her eyes it was necessary all the same.

“Then you know that no matter how small our company is, we are still large enough to take you on any day. What you make up for in numbers, we make up for in heart.” She could barely keep the pride in her voice down.

He seemed like he had been rendered speechless.

“That’s why I’m surprised that you didn’t keep up with anything I’ve been doing.” she explained.

“Because it just means you severely underestimated us being a threat. When this partnership is over…” Rey continued, speaking without thinking, fearful of what speaking those words would mean for their future. “We’re coming for you guys. And you and me will be back to where we started. As we should be. The two of us are going down in history for this together, but Resistance Treasures is going to come out on top.”

He spoke quietly, as if he didn’t want to speak the words at all. “Game on then. When this is all over we’re on opposite sides of the war, and I won’t hesitate to burn you to the ground. This was temporary for a reason.”

She echoed his words, affirming them in a way that seemed so wrong. “Temporary.”

“Well then I look forward to our brief stalemate”

“As do I.”

She was going to win it all. And she wasn’t going down until he was on the same side as her. Rey just hoped Ben believed in her false words. It was the only thing that would give her enough time to bring him back.


End file.
